Third-Party Audio Description
Post-production AD services can be purchased from vendors. 3Play Media, a Harvard vendor often used for captioning, offers AD service using automated audio. With their standard $7/minute service, descriptions are fit into natural pauses in the video’s audio track. 3Play’s extended service, priced at $11/minute, inserts pauses in the video to make room for descriptions, as needed.
Getting started with 3Play Media
Video Players that support audio description
One of the challenges with implementing audio description is player support. Most browsers and video players do not support the playing of description in the same way that they support captions. However, there are a few video players that do support audio description, including:
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Able Player: a fully accessible cross-browser HTML5 media player that supports both audio and video. Able Player offers support for audio description as a separate video, or in a Web Video Timed Text (WebVTT) file read aloud by modern browsers.
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Panopto: supports WebVTT files.
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Kaltura: supports single MP4 files with multiple audio tracks, which can include AD.
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Brightcove: supports multiple audio tracks as well.
The 3Play Plugin is a free tool that allows you to easily generate a simple embed code or hosted link for a video with audio description. The 3Play Plugin is customizable and compatible with most video players and publishing platforms, including learning management (LMS) systems.