The Critic Who Keeps Asking Who Else Made It
A blind TV critic reviewed my work eight times this summer. Every time he liked the track, he went looking for the names he couldn’t find. John Stark reviews television at MacTheMovieguy.com. He is blind. He reviews the Audio Description track the same way he reviews the writing, the performances, and the edit, with a […]
What Happens When The Voice Lands Right
She Did Everything Right The session was clean. Every word in its window. Pacing controlled. Pronunciation clear. When I listened back, I felt nothing. it really wasn’t that I was distracted, but I was just gone from it, like the way you’re gone from a conversation when the other person is technically responding but not […]
Blind Leadership in Audio Description Is Already Here. We Just Need to Catch Up
I’m a sighted audio description producer. That means I help coordinate and shape the teams that write, voice, and engineer audio description for films and other media. For a long time, I assumed my role was to help “make visual stories accessible” – to translate images into words. But the more I’ve worked with blind […]
Why theADNA.org Had to Exist
What You Want to Know – and Why It Was So Hard You hear a show dropped with audio description. You want to know three things: Is it available yet? Where do I watch it? Who wrote the script, and who performed it? Simple questions. But for years, the answers were scattered, buried, or just […]
The Promise Of Access
With respect to Anne Vasquez, Executive Director of the Television Academy Foundation: she’s led newsrooms, digital teams, and nonprofits-all with one goal: make a real impact and open doors for others. She helped win a Pulitzer, led strategy for major media orgs, and now brings that same clarity and drive to shaping the future of […]
You’re More Established Than You Feel: Reframing Imposter Energy Into Gratitude and Growth
You can be successful and still feel like you’re just getting started. A friend told me recently, “You’re established.” I laughed. Then paused. Then wanted to argue. Because it didn’t feel true. If you’ve ever reached a milestone and still felt behind, like your confidence didn’t quite catch up to your calendar, this is for […]
Keeping the Soul in the Signal: Why I Write About AI the Way I Do
More than 5 years ago, a major streaming service quietly tested an AI-cloned narrator on a popular series. Viewers noticed that something felt off. The pacing was perfect. The pronunciation was (mostly) flawless. But the performance had no pulse. That’s what keeps me writing about AI. Every conversation about artificial intelligence circles the same question: […]
What True Crime Gets Right About Inclusive Storytelling
Hat tip to Littleton Road Productions (Showrunner Patrick Macmanus, President Kelly Macmanus-Funke and philanthropic advisor Ioli Filmeridis) and the Television Academy Foundation’s #AccessBehindTheScreens Television Academy Foundation What do true crime TV, educational campaigns, and audio description have in common? More than you think. Recently, I listened to a powerful conversation hosted by the Television Academy […]
Infinite Context: What Generative AI Can’t Replicate About Human Performance
Hat Tip To Doug Shapiro’s substack article “Infinite Content” Doug Shapiro’s article Doug Shapiro’s latest chapter from Infinite Content hit me right where technology meets storytelling. He says generative AI is changing not just how we make media, but what it means to make it. The internet lowered the cost of sharing information by making […]
What if the people deciding your creative future didn’t know you existed?
For years, voice actors and accessibility performers weren’t even recognized by the Television Academy. That changed because people fought. People like Bob Bergen. People like you. Most people don’t see the real work of governance in our industry. But when you’re a working actor, especially in voiceover or accessibility, the stakes are personal. Who gets […]