HITS

International Digital Centre Earns Audio Description Honor

New York-based post-production and digital media processing firm International Digital Centre (IDC) has been honored by the American Council of the Blind’s (ACB) Audio Description Project (ADP) for its work in “empowering blind and marginalized talents” in the audio description space.

The Audio Description Achievement Award — awarded to IDC in the media category at the recent 2021 ADP conference — noted IDC’s work in contributing “to the establishment and/or continued development of significant audio description programs.”

“The awards committee certainly felt that describes [IDC’s] work to ensure the continuation of quality description, embrace and empower blind professionals in the field, and elevate voices from marginalized communities during the pandemic,” Jo Lynn Bailey-Page, ADP project coordinator and grant writer, said in statement.

IDC received the award due to its employment of blind and low-vision narrators during the pandemic, along with the launch of a new internal quality control program, which brought on a blind audio description expert to help polish scripts. Additionally, that AD department worked closely with a major streaming provider to update their style manual, adding guidelines for describing characters of diverse backgrounds and appearances.

“By including blind experts in the creation process, listening to feedback from AD consumers, and pushing platforms to incorporate AD, IDC has worked to elevate voices from marginalized communities to make sure they are amplified, heard, and represented in authentic ways,” IDC said in a statement. “We are proud to carry this work forward into IDC’s future.”