Want your streaming platform to reach every viewer? Professional audio description and skilled voice actors ensure accessible, engaging experiences, boosting audience trust, compliance, and retention. Discover how expert voice over services drive the future of inclusive streaming entertainment.
Of the 1.8 billion people worldwide who now tune into streaming platforms, many can only enjoy what they’re viewing as a result of this kind of accessibility feature.
While once considered a fancy optional feature, in recent years audio description (AD) has become something of an industry standard.
Regions such as the US, EU, and UK now legally insist that streaming platforms include it alongside other inclusivity features in their overall offering.
Streaming giants such as Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and Disney+ have been quick to comply. After all, beyond the necessity of meeting legal requirements, expanding the ways audiences can consume their content means expanding their audience base too.
However, delivering audio description that feels truly inclusive requires more than just checking a box on compliance; it also requires a human touch.
And that in itself leads to another question, which is, if streaming is the future of entertainment, will audio description—and the voice actors currently behind it—have a role in shaping the overall experience?
What is Audio Description?
Before we look to answering that, let’s first define exactly what we mean by audio description.
Most of us have had occasion to turn on the subtitles when viewing a TV show or movie, particularly when it’s offered in another language, we’re living with a hearing impairment, or we just want to make sure we don’t miss any of the dialogue.
Audio description has a different function.
Rather than delivering what’s being said by each character, it describes what’s actually happening on the screen.
The focus is on the action happening between the dialogue, including non-verbal cues such as gestures or facial expressions, or the camera’s close-up on an object, person, or stretch of scenery.
So, if a plot point hangs on a shared look, then viewers with visual issues, including elderly people, or even those multitasking while watching a show, will miss pertinent parts of the plot that can’t be conveyed through scripted words alone.
How Does Audio Description Differ from Voice Over?
However, while the expressions audio description uses may be heavy with emotion, the audio description itself is not.
This doesn’t mean it’s dull and dreary-sounding. But it does call for a very different approach than film dubbing or a voice over for a product promo, which tends to have a livelier storytelling aspect to it.
The best audio describers keep three things in mind:
Delivering in a neutral, steady tone
Showing empathy for the audience
Managing accurate pace and timing
Neutrality and empathy may sound like opposites, but in practice, they can work well together to clearly convey any important visual aspect of the plot and help a listener experience the story fully.
As Antonio R., whose vast experience as a voice actor extends to several AD projects, explains:
Neutral voices must be equally precise in transmitting the message they want to give, in the right measure of tone, inflection, and cadence, so that it is understandable not only rationally but also emotionally by the listener.
In short, it’s a balance that comes from carefully choosing the tone and using words that match the feelings on screen.
American voice talent Jennifer K.
Much in-demand voice actor and audio describer, Jennifer K., agrees, claiming that, for voice actors and the companies looking for top-notch AD, it’s about:
Understanding that the voice for audio description is background support. Clear and easy to listen to, but not spotlighting anything or drawing attention. Simple, straightforward, clear.
Hear Jennifer’s AD voice over in action in this educational video series by Count Play Explore For Early Education:
How to “Show” in Audio Description and Not Just “Tell”
This also means respecting the artistic direction of the program.
Audio description must combine a means of “show” alongside “tell,” similar to the visuals that sighted audiences enjoy.
In this way, suspense, humor, or surprise is preserved for everyone watching.
The blind audience should be on the same page as the sighted audience. If something is meant to trick a sighted audience, it should trick us, too.
Ensuring Description, Not Interruption
The third element of great AD is to ensure descriptions are on the nose without being too lengthy. This involves managing the pace and timing of each sentence spoken.
For starters, no audio description should overlap with dialogue.
Besides confusing the listeners, it would likely be irritating to listen to an ongoing flow of description and dialogue with no let-up in between.
As Howard notes:
You want to have some room to breathe a little bit. Especially in a horror movie like A Quiet Place, where a lot of the time, the silence builds tension, so you want to include that as well. It’s a fine line between taking up time and not.
Howard specifically mentions A Quiet Place, the 2018 sleeper hit for Paramount (and subsequently its streaming platform Paramount+), as an example of how sound and audio description together can create a powerful experience for all audiences.
In fact, the film’s director, John Krasinski, received an Excellence in Directing prize at the 2021 Media Access Awards for his commitment to inclusion.
Similarly, deaf actress Millicent Simmonds, who also plays a leading role in the movie, received the Greenwich International Film Festival’s Make An Impact Award in 2019 for her work on the film and its impact on disability advocacy.
The success of AD in A Quiet Place and other blockbuster franchises like The Hunger Games (see below) shows that there are audiences of all abilities that are eager to enjoy films, shows, and streaming content.
This only underscores the responsibility streaming platforms have to deliver complete and engaging experiences for every viewer.
Why Does Human AD Win Over AI-Generated Narration?
Ensuring that tension or suspense within a show or film is not broken means using an unobtrusive voice actor skilled in the nuances of audio description.
While this makes a strong case for choosing human talent over synthetic voices, many platforms and studios opt for AI anyway.
It’s no secret that a large swathe of streaming platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, and Disney, use AI algorithms to collect data about their subscribers as well as help build services that appeal to broader audiences.
Netflix, for example, has invested heavily in AI-driven language dubbing and closed captioning, highlighting its growing commitment to accessibility.
Such services are helpful. But using AI tools like text-to-speech for viewers with visual issues does come with problems—the very sound of it being the main one.
Latin American Spanish voice actor Antonio R.
Antonio explains:
In many cases, AI has supplanted real voices, but it fails to fully convey the complexity of human voices in terms of warmth, understanding, and emotional connection. While they will surely copy us with high quality in a short time, it will be just that: a copy, not a genuine generation of emotion.
He continues:
The general consensus among experts is that while AI excels at replicating and modeling the human voice in great detail, it lacks the element of lived experience. The vulnerability, humor, and creativity that make a person’s voice unique are still difficult to synthesize fully.
Check out Anotnio’s AD voice work in the STEAM series Count Play Explore For Early Education:
With this in mind, subscribers who regularly rely on AD can claim a certain amount of influence.
By demanding quality, they can push streaming platforms to keep human narrators in the mix.
After all, if they’re regularly tuning into a flat or emotionally clumsy voice narrating key moments in a movie or TV program, many will simply take their attention—and their subscriptions—elsewhere.
Something that, because it’s so easy to do today, is keeping this notion of “quality” at the forefront of streaming platforms’ accessibility offering.
Streaming Competitors and Audio Description Quality
Since Netflix launched streaming in 2007, countless competitors have entered the market. The most successful of these have quickly learned that the best way to win paying subscribers is by making each one feel valued.
High-quality accessibility features like audio description do just that.
When audiences see their needs taken seriously, they’re more likely to trust the platform and continue as subscribers.
This not only builds credibility for the platform but also helps increase overall viewing numbers.
The Future of Streaming is Inclusive
So, what does this mean for the future of entertainment?
Streaming platforms now dominate global viewing habits. As many as 83% of Americans claim they watch streaming services, and this percentage looks likely to grow.
As these platforms evolve, accessibility has become crucial for reaching wider audiences.
In addition to legal requirements, there is an increasing expectation that popular streaming platforms will offer programming that is welcoming to viewers of diverse abilities.
But ensuring this is done well means making use of human skill as well as technological know-how.
Human voice actors, who have the professional capacity to deliver stories with clarity, nuance, and empathy, play a vital role in ensuring that platforms build trust with viewers.
That trust is what keeps a streaming service not only ahead in a crowded marketplace but in business in the long run.
This in itself means that audio description is already part and parcel of the future focus of streaming entertainment.
At Voice Crafters, we can connect streaming services with top professional audio describers and voice over artists.
Our voice actors are from all over the world, spanning 80+ native languages, and have been fully vetted to prove their professional abilities.
Audio description describes the action that is taking place, including non-verbal cues like gestures and facial expressions, in any visual entertainment.
Audio description describes what is happening on screen and is typically delivered in a more neutral tone and a steady pace.
Voice overs for TV commercials or corporate videos have a more marketing or story-telling aspect to them, meaning the voices you hear tend to be more persuasive, with a range of different tones and pacing.
Regions such as the US, EU, and UK legally require streaming platforms to include accessibility features in their overall offering.
In addition, there is now an expectation that platforms present their subscribers with programming that can be viewed by audiences of different abilities.
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