In this episode, I talk with Jenna Jennissary, a producer at Descriptive Video Works who specializes mostly in video games and still gets to write and perform audio description herself. We talk about how a Reddit post about a scene in “God of War” led her from regulatory affairs into audio description, where the field’s standards come from when no central body sets them, how tight timing makes writers experts at saying the same thing in fewer syllables, and what it takes to break in as a new audio description writer.

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Jenna and I start with what audio description is: a scripted narrator who speaks between the existing dialog to describe the visuals for blind and visually impaired viewers. She came to it from regulatory affairs at a pharmaceutical manufacturer after SightlessKombat asked on Reddit for someone to describe an emotional, dialog-free scene in “God of War.” Jenna thought she could do better than the first attempt, and the two of them ended up audio describing the whole game as a fan project, which led to her job at Descriptive Video Works.

The heart of our conversation is why Jenna calls audio description tech writing and creative writing smooshed together. No central body sets the rules; standards come from the biggest studios and clients like Netflix. Most of the constraints come down to timing: the narrator can only speak in the gaps, so you become an expert at finding synonyms with fewer syllables. We also talk about working past a sighted writer’s biases, including why, given the choice, it’s slightly better to describe an action just before it happens, so the listener has time to process it.

Jenna covers what makes a good audio description writer and what makes an excellent one, the tools and security measures behind the work, how blind players play video games, and how new writers break in, including practicing on YouDescribe. She recommends Netflix’s audio description guidelines and the American Council of the Blind’s Audio Description Project, and closes with her own life advice: if something in your day-to-day bugs you, change it.

Jenna is a Producer at Descriptive Video Works, the largest Audio Description studio in North America, and the leading studio for video game Audio Description. She has written many of the current industry standards to adapt AD writing to the unique constraints of video games, and advocates for quality above all for her oft-underserved audience. Thankfully, she still often gets to write or perform AD herself for live events.

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