Audio description is an additional narration track that describes the important visual parts of a film — the things you'd miss if you couldn't clearly see the screen. It's read in the natural gaps between dialogue, so it fills in the picture without ever talking over the story.
What audio description includes
A good description tells you who is on screen, what they're doing, where the scene is set, and the small visual details that carry meaning — a glance, a gesture, a change of expression, or on-screen text like a letter or a sign. It's written to match the tone and pace of the film, so a tense thriller and a gentle comedy don't sound the same.
Who audio description is for
Audio description is primarily for blind and low-vision audiences, for whom it turns a film from a half-experience into a complete one. But plenty of sighted people use it too — when multitasking, when learning a language, or simply because they enjoy the richer narration.
How you experience it at the cinema
With a companion app like KinoSync, you choose the audio description track for your film and press play. The narration streams privately to your earphones and stays in perfect time with the screening — no dedicated accessible showing, and no special equipment to borrow. You watch the same showtime, in the same room, as everyone else.
- Narration of the on-screen action, between the lines of dialogue
- Tuned to the genre, tone and pacing of the film
- Private to your earphones, at a volume you control
- Perfectly in time for the whole screening
If you'd like to try it, you can browse every film available with audio description on the KinoSync movies page, and read more on our guide to movies for blind and visually impaired audiences.