Speaker 1: James Rath, a Caucasian man, stands firmly in front of his desk towards the audience. He looks around, wondering where this voice is coming from.

Speaker 2: Hey everyone, James Rath here. What you just heard was an audio description. What is an audio description? Well, that is basically when an extra track of audio is narrating the key visual points of a video. Have you ever wondered how people who are visually impaired or completely blind go to the movies and enjoy visual content? Well, it's thanks to audio descriptions. Not only can we hear the sound effects, the dialogue, but we're also able to just kind of hear what's happening, giving context by a description of what's happening in the video. It's so important that, especially online, that video content is accessible because audio descriptions don't just benefit the blind. They also benefit people who have cognitive disabilities or if you just want to watch a video but close your eyes and maybe try to go to sleep but still have context to what you're listening to, it's perfect for that scenario.

Speaker 1: The internet is full of amazing content creators and it's awesome that so many people have

Speaker 2: like quick and easy access to these sorts of creators and can enjoy their content. However, there are people who are just unable to watch or enjoy YouTube videos thanks to not having closed captions on your videos or YouTube in general not having anything like audio descriptions included in the video player. Audio descriptions have already been successfully implemented in services like Netflix and iTunes. The majority, if not all, of Netflix's original content has audio descriptions, but there's plenty of other content from other networks and shows that have audio descriptions as an option. Even some movie theaters have had audio descriptions for many years. Google and YouTube are fairly accessible, but YouTube's lacking in the one department which is audio descriptions. YouTube, it's 2016. I think it's time that we step up the accessibility game just a bit more and include audio descriptions. Although I make videos that are universal, as a content creator who's legally blind, I want to be able to reach an audience that relates to me on a visual level. Adding the ability for content creators to add audio descriptions through videos could be easily implemented. YouTube already allows the option to put an extra audio track on an already existing video. Usually this is done for copyright purposes and it's from YouTube's specific library, but being able to upload an audio file or even record directly to YouTube's website an extra audio file that would allow me to just narrate the key visual elements of my videos would be super handy for those who are blind, visually impaired, or have cognitive disabilities. Much like closed captions, this isn't a feature that has to be on all the time. It could just be a button that says AD at the bottom of the player and you just enable it if you want audio descriptions to play during your video. Just as a bonus, YouTube should also include the ability for creators to upload the entire transcription of our videos. That way if there's a visually impaired or blind user using a screen reader, they're able to easily just have their screen reader, like ZoomText, VoiceOver, or Narrator, and it will just read everything that's happening during the video. Why would creators want to put in the time and effort to audio describe their videos? Well to put it simply is if you do so, you're going to have access to a whole new audience that can come and enjoy your videos now that they're more accessible. That means more comments, more likes, and more subscribers. Much like closed captions, if your videos are audio described, in the search you're more than likely going to pop up more in the top because of just how more accessible they are and having your videos more accessible sort of influences where you rank in the search bar of YouTube and Google. Obviously it wouldn't be a requirement for creators to audio describe their videos, but again there's benefits on both ends. Besides it's 2016, let's try to make our videos inclusive and accessible. My voice is only so loud. I'm asking creators to create videos of their own and talk about audio descriptions, what they are, and why they would audio describe their videos. This way we can show YouTube the kind of support that's behind this and just make YouTube more accessible for a whole new audience. And lastly, vision is a privilege. Some of us are born with it, some are not. Some of us lose it, some of us don't. You never know when a freak accident could happen, you never know when you might get a disease, or you might just lose vision as you age. Vision is a privilege. Not everyone's born with it. Don't take it for granted. As a creator, I never know if I'm going to lose all my vision. I personally would love to go back and be able to enjoy my old content, my old videos, and cherish those memories by having it more accessible for my future self. That's all I really have to say about that, but leave your thoughts down below. And if you support audio descriptions on YouTube, share this video with YouTube. Share this video with other creators. Share this video with everyone. And we can make YouTube accessible, we can make YouTube a larger community than it is already.

Speaker 1: Thank you guys. Bye. He covers the camera lens with his hand and walks off screen. Last video. Short film. Subscribe. JamesRath.la. Instagram. Twitter. Tumblr. YouTube. At JamesRath.