Providing synthesized audio description for online videos

We describe an initial attempt to develop a common platform for adding an audio description (AD) to an online video so that blind and visually impaired people can enjoy such material. A speech synthesis technology allows content providers to offer the AD at minimal cost. We exploit external metadata so that the AD can be independent of the video format. The external approach also allows external supporters to add ADs to any online videos. Our technology includes an authoring tool for writing AD scripts, a Web browser add-on for synthesizing ADs synchronized with original videos, and a text-based format to exchange AD scripts.