Audio description narrates the essential visual detail of a story, from action and expression to setting and costume, in the gaps between dialogue and sound. Done well, it disappears into the work, so a blind or low-vision audience member experiences the same story beats at the same time as everyone watching.
2 million+people in the UK live with sight loss, according to RNIB
The commercial and legal case has never been stronger. Ofcom sets access-service quotas for UK broadcasters, and the European Accessibility Act came into force in June 2025.
10%of programmes: Ofcom's audio description target for UK TV channels
28 June 2025the date the European Accessibility Act began to apply
Streamers now expect AD as a standard deliverable, and venues increasingly programme described performances as a matter of course.
38.6%of on-demand services reporting to Ofcom offered audio description in 2024, up from 32.1% the year before
The better reason is simpler. It shows every audience member you care. Description written well reflects the values of the production and the producers it serves.
140+productions described across film, TV, theatre and galleries
Since 2019describing professionally, from the West End to global streaming
Script, voice, or both, from a reel to a series.
Every job designed to fit your platform, and post-production pipeline.
The heart of the studio. Description scripts and recorded narration for feature releases, shorts and series, timed to the frame, designed to complement the sound mix, and delivered to the house styles of the platform you're working with.
Recent titles: Releases on Netflix, Disney+, Amazon, Sky and NBCUniversal, The BFI Network, and Mubi theatrical releases.
The formats that don't have an access playbook yet: social video, virtual reality, web campaigns and interactive work. This is where the studio is pushing hardest. If it's visual and it's new, it can be described.
Where the craft was built. Live, in-venue description through the theatre's headset system, from Shakespeare at the Globe to new writing at the Royal Court. Thirty productions across the West End and beyond, panto included.
Described tours, exhibition films and installation audio for cultural spaces. Recent projects include work at the British Museum, the British Library, Tate Modern and the Tower of London.
Through Describe has helped organise ongoing development training for describers with VocalEyes and the Audio Description Association, and helped facilitate AD awareness training for cultural organisations. If you need training, we can help, or point you to the right people.
Here's the shape of a typical job.
We agree format, deadlines and delivery spec. You send the materials; Through Describe flags anything that needs a decision early.
Through Describe views the work closely and maps the spaces between dialogue and sound where description can live.
We create a timed script drafted to your platform's style guide, choosing the visual details that matter most to the story.
Recorded narration to your audio spec, delivered in the formats your platform asks for.
We agree dates, venue and which performances are described. You send the script, recordings and rehearsal access.
Through Describe sees the production and notes the set, costume and movement that need words.
We create a description script and a pre-show introduction covering set, costume and cast, ready for the audience's headsets.
Live description in the venue on the night, through the theatre's headset system, rehearsed and ready. We also run a touch tour for your patrons, allowing them a tactile navigation of the stage.
We agree platforms, formats and deadlines. You send the assets; Through Describe flags where a format has no usual access route.
Through Describe reviews the content and decides how description should work in the format: voiced, written, or built into the experience.
Description written for the format: tight for short video, spatial and layered for virtual reality and interactive work.
Voiced files, text or in-experience description, delivered in whatever each platform needs.
Through Describe Studio was founded by Michael Skellern to provide film-first script and voice work for features, shorts and streaming, to establish a growing specialism in social and new media, and to ensure that blind and low-vision audiences get the whole story.
Trained as a describer in 2019 with Roz Chalmers OBE and VocalEyes, the leading provider of audio description in London's West End, he's described live at the National Theatre, the Old Vic, the Royal Court, the Donmar Warehouse and Shakespeare's Globe.
Film and television is now the heart of Through Describe Studio's work: feature releases and series on Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Sky, NBCUniversal and Mubi.
Through Describe is particularly interested in where accessibility goes next: social media, virtual reality and the new formats that don't have an access playbook yet. Think VR experiences, social media, large scale multimedia artworks, and e-zines. If your project exists in these untrodden spaces, get in touch.
143 productions and counting, some as a freelance describer through audio description companies.
Format, timeline, delivery spec, or just the idea. If you're not sure what your project needs, that's a fine place to start too.
Need audio description awareness training rather than description itself? Get in touch anyway. If it's not something we can deliver, we'll point you to the right people.