'Velvet', the first series that blind people can follow thanks to a mobile application

Thanks to the AudescMobile application, based on audio description, blind people or people with severe visual disabilities will be able to synchronously follow the television broadcast with additional sound information explaining actions, gestures, scenarios, costumes...

Velvet, the series that Antena 3 premieres today, will become the first series in the history of television in Spain that blind people or people with severe visual disabilities will be able to follow through audio description, through the AudescMobile application for mobile phones and tablets. This initiative, unprecedented and pioneering in the world of television, has been possible thanks to the collaboration agreement between the Atresmedia Foundation, the Vodafone Spain Foundation, ONCE and S-DOS.

The aforementioned entities have promoted and supported this computer application that will allow a blind person to follow Atresmedia's new production from minute one, individually or with their family and friends, through a mobile device. The great novelty is that it allows you to listen to the audio description without having to select any special option on the television.

Thus, AudescMobile is based on audio description, a system that provides, synchronously with its broadcast on the small screen, additional sound information that explains the actions, gestures, settings, costumes and other relevant aspects that help them understand the plot or content of the work.

The mechanism of use is very simple because any user who has the application on their smartphone only has to start it and listen to it openly or with headphones: the synchronization is carried out based on the audio of the series, regardless of the platform on which it is broadcast (TV, cinema, DVD, computer...), and the user immediately enjoys the information of the series in real time, perfectly coupled to its development.

AudescMobile is available free of charge for the Android and iOS operating systems, and has been designed between ONCE and the Vodafone Spain Foundation, with the technical development of the company S-DOS.

With this initiative, Atresmedia takes another step in its commitment so that all people, regardless of their visual or hearing limitations, have access to audiovisual content. Its efforts to increase, year after year, the accessibility of programming go beyond the obligations of the General Audiovisual Law. The main accessibility tools used are audio description, signing and subtitling of content.

Proof of this effort is the increase in hours of audio-described programming and signed programs in 2013 to more than 1,500 and 700 hours, respectively, 85% more than 2012. At the same time, the volume of subtitled programming has increased by 20% during 2013 to exceed 35,800 hours.