Practices & Resources We Recommend
There are many organisations doing excellent work to make cinema, film and TV accessible to D/deaf and disabled audiences, and we aim to help filmmakers and film institutions navigate these by providing a list of recommended practices, guides and resources.
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Live Captioning And Sign Language Interpreting Your Events
Every film should be made accessible to D/deaf and disabled people by providing closed captioned and audio described screening options, by screening films with these options enabled, and also by advertising these accessible screenings; D/deaf and disabled audiences will readily attend events if we know they are accessible to us!
Online events like Zoom calls, webinars, and conferences should always be made accessible to D/deaf people by providing live captioning and/or sign language interpreters, for example in American Sign Language (ASL) in the USA, British Sign Language (BSL) in the UK, or Lengua de Señas Mexicana (LSM) in Mexico. Live captioning services are sometimes called Communication Access Real-time Translation (CART).
Providing both live captioning and sign language interpreters for all your events is best, but if you need to start with one option we recommend live captioning (as not all D/deaf people are sign language users). We do not currently recommend automatic live captioning services, as they are frequently inaccurate.
Purple Communications: Interpreting and Live Captioning (CART) services (USA)
Enabling Automated Captions on Zoom
Enabling Automated Captions on Google Meets
Otter.ai provides automated live captions.
AVA provides combined human and automated live captions.
Subtitling, Captioning, and ASL Captioning Info and Services
The Ultimate Guide To Closed Captioning
How to Create Custom SRT Files for Video Subtitles
How to Add Captions to your Film
Stagetext: Best practice for subtitling your videos
Screen Language provides professional, cinema quality audio description, captions and multilingual subtitles, as well as British Sign Language interpretation and events live captioning.
Stagetext provides free digital subtitling training.
DPAN provides ASL captioning services.
Spaceship info@spacedreamfilms.com provides captioning services.
Media Accessibility Services by Cheryl Green provides captioning and audio description services.
All Senses Go: Media Accessibility Services by Matt Lauterbach, Reveca Torres, Michael Herzovi and Grishma Shah provides captioning and audio description services.
Wet Writhing and Eldritch Gurgling: A Chat With the Stranger Things Subtitles Team
IDA’s Getting Real 2020 Conference: Audio Descriptions and Captioning in Film (event recording) "The makers and artistic collaborators of 'Vision Portraits' and 'Crip Camp' discuss the creative process behind their use of accessibility features such as audio description and closed captioning."
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IDA’s Getting Real 2020 Conference: Audio Descriptions and Captioning in Film (event recording) "The makers and artistic collaborators of 'Vision Portraits' and 'Crip Camp' discuss the creative process behind their use of accessibility features such as audio description and closed captioning."
The Ultimate Guide To Audio Description
Guidelines and Best Practices for Audio Description
SFFILM: The Art of Audio Description (event recording)
Audio Description as a Tool for Equity
Blind and Low-Vision Viewers Care About Screen Style — So Why Does Audio Description Skip It?
All Senses Go: Media Accessibility Services by Matt Lauterbach, Reveca Torres, Michael Herzovi and Grishma Shah provides captioning and audio description services.
Screen Language provides professional, cinema quality audio description, captions and multilingual subtitles, as well as British Sign Language interpretation and events live captioning.All Senses Go: Media Accessibility Services
Social Audio Description provides audio description services.
Media Accessibility Services by Cheryl Green provides captioning and audio description services.
Joel Snyder provides audio description services.
Michele Spitz provides audio description services.
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A Toolkit for Inclusion & Accessibility: Changing the Narrative of Disability in Documentary Film created by FWD-Doc in association with Doc Society and supported by Netflix, featuring a case study about Crip Camp (2020) and with a view to best practice, not just compliance.
Accessibility Checklist created by FEAW to help organizations identify areas for growth in film event accessibility.
Accessibility Guide 2024 created by Underground Music Showcase and links to a full accessibility guide for event.
Accessibility In Cinemas: How Wheelchair Friendly Are Cinemas? Reflections By A Wheelchair User
The Audio Description Projectprovides a wealth of information about audio description, including a list of audio described films.
The Accessible Filmmaking Guidewritten by Dr Pablo Romero-Fresco (University of Roehampton) and Dr Louise Fryer (BBC, UCL) is a comprehensive resource on accessible and inclusive filmmaking practices and processes. Chapters include ‘The Workflow’ and ‘You Can Afford It’, plus useful budget breakdowns of the actual costs of making your film and filmmaking accessible.
Inclusive Cinemaproject, developed by the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN), contains accessibility service recommendations, how-to guides, research and data, case studies and information on training and funding.
Inclusive Event Design developed by google to support you in creating events that are inclusive and accessible, both for attendees who explicitly request accommodations, and those who may not due to perceived stigma.
How To Make Your Website Accessible is for gamers and has many resources for filmmakers
Accessibility in Gaming Resource Guide by Jennifer Kretchmer
Checking PDFs for Accessibility is a quick guide for checking accessibility of pdfs.
Accessibility and Inclusion Consultants and ServicesDisCourse is a consulting and coaching group dedicated to helping businesses, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations craft comprehensive strategies of accessibility and inclusion. Through careful review of existing institutional missions and goals, instructional workshops, communication and marketing review, and systematic access planning, DisCourse helps multiple types of communities create standards of accessibility that move beyond ADA compliance. This work is informed by findings and experiences associated with DisArt and its public programming.
FEAW Vendor Database provides an expanding list of great film access vendors.
LaVant Consulting is a social impact communications firm that offers cutting-edge corporate development and content marketing for brands and nonprofits.
Where Can I Hire Disabled Filmmakers?
FWD-Doc members are skilled professionals working in all areas of production and distribution of film and TV. If you would like to share job opportunities, speaker/panelist opportunities, consultant requests, or other career or funding-related opportunities with our members, please send details about the opportunities to hello@fwd-doc.org. Please include clear and accessible job descriptions and contact info, and a summary of the company's or production’s commitment to accessibility and inclusion with information about whom to contact to request accommodations. We are currently creating talent and expert databases, and we look forward to announcing them in due course.
Yes I Can Unity Through Music and Education provides creatives with disabilities customized training and employment services to acquire necessary skills to assist them in securing careers within the entertainment industry earning a competitive wage.
Production Accessibility Coordinators
Indievisible provides production accessibility coordinator services, captioning, audio description, subtitles, and consulting on accessibility and web accessibility.
FEAW Vendor Database provides an expanding list of great film access vendors.
Budgeting for Accessibility
Inevitable Foundation - Providing accessibility budget templates, calculators, and consulting to companies on budgeting for accessibility.
For Film Institutions and Exhibitors
Case Study on Reeling Film Festival + Accessibility report consolidates key learnings from Year One of the Access Reframed: Empowering Action regranting program. By sharing both the successes and failures of our attempt to cultivate greater accessibility at a regional festival, we hope to encourage collective action amongst festival organizers, funders, and filmmakers towards the expansion of access to film programming both in Chicago and across the country.
Full Spectrum Feature's Access Reframed Educational Webinars related to accessibility approaches increasing accessibility from a place of collaboration, reframing accessibility as a societal value that's good for business.
FEAW Vendor Database provides an expanding list of great film access vendors.
Independent Cinema Office’s Guide To Subtitling and Audio Description
Inclusive Cinema: Guides To Subtitling, BSL and Audio Description services (UK)
Independent Cinema Office: 5 ways to make your venue more accessible for D/deaf people
Welcoming blind and partially sighted people to your venues
How To Talk About DisabilityThe National Center on Disability and Journalism Style Guide.
What Ignoring the Disability Community Costs Hollywood
Media Representation of Disabled People: A Critical Analysis
United Nations: Disability and the Media
How to Talk about Autism Respectfully
There is No Justice Without Disability
Disability Justice
10 Principles of Disability Justice by Sins Invalid
Economics
Disability Discussions
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This is a living database maintained by FEAW: https://feaw.org/vendor-database. If you are a vendor, you can add you/your organization’s name as a service provider. Please also share your favorite service providers with FEAW via the vendor database.