Adding audio description to television science programs. Impact on legally blind viewers

Much information in television science programs is conveyed only visually, preventing or limiting access by people who are blind or severely visually impaired to the learning and enjoyment such programs offer. In 1993, the Informal Science Education division of the National Science Foundation awarded a grant to the Descriptive Video Service(r) at the WGBH Educational Foundation to add audio description to a number of programs from two science series broadcast on PBS: The New Explorers and Nature, thereby making them accessible to blind and visually impaired viewers. The grant also included funds to conduct an objective research study to assess what impact the added description had for blind and visually impaired viewers. WGBH subcontracted the American Foundation for the Blind to conduct the formal research.