Video Description Research and Development Center

photo of a bridge with text: "be descriptive be brief be part of the solution"

The Smith-Kettlewell Video Description Research and Development Center (VDRDC) investigates innovative technologies and techniques for making online video more accessible to blind and visually-impaired students and consumers. Through collaboration with a broad array of partners and stakeholders in the Description Leadership Network, we are developing advanced video annotation methods for use in a wide variety of educational settings, as well as helping educators and other description providers make better use of the tools already available.

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Upcoming Events

There are no Upcoming Events at this time

Past Events

Inactive
  • Inactive

    Remote Real-Time Description (RRTD)

    Remote real-time description (RRTD) is a simple technique that will allow a describer anywhere in the world to provide real-time description for a video stream being viewed by a visually-impaired student at home, in the classroom, or on the go. In RRTD, a video feed is streamed to the describer who passes the audio (and optionally the video) to the student, along with the added live description.

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  • Inactive

    Visual-Impairment Research Agenda for Description (VIRAD)

    A systematic road map charting gaps in the quantitative evidence about how description can and should be used to improve video accessibility for the blind.

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Current
  • Joshua Miele in his SKERI office

    Joshua Miele is a 2021 MacArthur Fellow

    Smith-Kettlewell is proud and honored to announce that one of our alumni, Dr. Joshua Miele, has received a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship for his work in developing devices to enable blind and visually impaired people to access everyday technologies and digital information. Widely known as a “Genius Grant,” this prestigious award reflects Josh's achievements while he was a scientist at SKERI as well as his present work begun in 2019 at Amazon Lab126.

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  • The letter Y in lavender and D in purple, with a lavender rectangle around the two letters

    Relaunch of YouDescribe

    On May 18, 2017, in honor of the sixth Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), Smith-Kettlewell relaunched the award- winning YouDescribe with new features, expanded capabilities, and exciting possibilities for the future of audio description. YouDescribe is a free web-based platform for adding audio description to YouTube videos to improve accessibility for the blind. Conceived in 2011 by Smith-Kettlewell scientist Dr. Joshua Miele in 2011, YouDescribe is a unique platform that allows sighted describers to add audio description to any YouTube video and share those descriptions with blind viewers.

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  • two photos of people in looking at laptop screens

    DescribeAthon 17 'Marathon'

    On January 26, 2017, in San Francisco, the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute’s Rehabilitation and Engineering Research Center (RERC) hosted DescribeAthon 17 -- an event that used the Institute’s YouDescribe technology, developed by scientist Dr. Josh Miele, to raise awareness about video accessibility on the web for blind viewers. YouDescribe is an enhanced video program for YouTube in which recorded voices describe what cannot be seen.

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