‘Daredevil’ Star Charlie Cox Honored
June 21, 2015 9:59 PM   Subscribe

Charlie Cox plays the blind superhero Daredevil in the Netflix show of the same name. He has received the 19th Helen Keller Achievement Award from the American Foundation for the Blind. Daredevil is Netflix first show to have have audio descriptions.
posted by adept256 (26 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
I really love this story about Charlie Cox at the end of this article that's mainly about Apple receiving an award at the same event for VoiceOver, their screen reader for iOS and OS X:
"Still, it can be difficult for sighted people to understand the importance of VoiceOver. Even Charlie Cox, the actor who plays the blind, superhero attorney on Netflix’s Daredevil didn’t fully get it until one day on set
Cox, who was also at the AFB event to accept a Helen Keller Achievement Award, spent hours with Joe Strechay, AFB’s CareerConnect Program Manager learning how the visually impaired navigate the world. Strechay even showed him how he uses VoiceOver.
When it came time to make Daredevil’s mask, Cox had to sit in a chair for 45 minutes with his face completely covered in papier-mâché. Five minutes into the process, his iPhone starts to vibrate, once, twice, three times… “It was five or six texts. I started to panic.” Then he remembered what Strechay had taught him. Cox took out his iPhone and used VoiceOver to navigate.
“The great irony is that all the texts were from Joe, asking how it was going,” said Cox.
I think software developers in particular should learn to use the basics of VO on their phones so that they can implement accessibility in their apps through the whole software development lifecycle, and you never know, it might save your bacon some day if your screen dies and you need to call for help, etc. It's just a useful piece of the OS to know how to use.
posted by Space Coyote at 10:22 PM on June 21, 2015 [25 favorites]


People really discount the importance of accessibility for software development. It's often a few simple tweaks that take a big difference, but like you say, if engineers and product people have never even tried to use the features that exist, they don't know what needs to be done. As a developer, I generally try to make an effort, but people don't see accessibility and accessibility testing as priorities, and that's a big part of the problem.

I worked with a great engineer, who was blind, years ago. The whole office communicated over IRC, so he had to balance having his screen reader do his main work and the background chatter, but we made it work easily enough. He had his desktop environment configured to his needs like a glove. The only funny story came when he hit the one part of the OS that a screen reader couldn't touch. He called me over and asked if I could help figure out what was going on: on his screen was a BSOD.
posted by zachlipton at 11:15 PM on June 21, 2015 [4 favorites]


Interestingly, the DVD of the 2003 Daredevil film also featured an audio descriptions track.
(No award for Ben Affleck, though. At least not from the AFB.)
posted by LEGO Damashii at 3:00 AM on June 22, 2015


I'm sighted, but I found myself utilizing the audio descriptions for Daredevil often. I tend to watch Netflix while doing other things, and it was really helpful. I also thought it was an effective way of putting myself in Matt Murdock's shoes a little bit.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:51 AM on June 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


I'm sighted, but I found myself utilizing the audio descriptions for Daredevil often. I tend to watch Netflix while doing other things, and it was really helpful. I also thought it was an effective way of putting myself in Matt Murdock's shoes a little bit.

I watched a few scenes with the audio descriptions and I was struck by the need to maintain consistent identities for otherwise anonymous characters in scenes like fights. As a sighted person, that information is theoretically available to me, but I often miss it, and watching scenes with the audio description helped me pick up little "oh that person he's punching now is the person he punched before" things.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 5:20 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


I informally provided this service in college for a friend. At sporting events she could listen to her transistor radio and probably be better informed than most at the game with her. But for movies she needed a narrative. I don't recall the specific movies, probably for two reasons. First, I had to make sure I didn't get caught-up in the story and forget to narrate. Secondly, she had horrible taste in films. Her major selection criteria was that she liked the voice of one or more of the actors. I do remember telling her that any attempt to narrate 2001: A Space Odyssey would probably be futile, especially the ending, but it might be worth going for the music and sound quality...
posted by jim in austin at 5:34 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


PBS did audio descriptions for its own shows and a lot of mainstream movies 20 years ago. Glad to see Netflix catching up! Is their streaming finally doing subtitles by now?
posted by Melismata at 7:27 AM on June 22, 2015


This previously has a link to a remarkably still-working mp3 of an entire Simpsons episode's audio with descriptive video turned on. The post makes a point that the description turns it into a radio show and adds its own editorializing to create a whole new dimension to the show.
posted by Space Coyote at 8:02 AM on June 22, 2015 [4 favorites]


About fucking time, Netflix. This is way past due, and is coming after *years* of pressure from folks like the Netflix Accessibility Project, and years of Netflix either not responding at all or telling them "we have no plans to offer audio description." Scroll down at that page for all the posts about Netflix's intransigence. This CNBC article from April details the consistent pressure from advocates for the blind, and Netflix's "we have no further updates" response, made worse by how cheap audio description is to offer. The article also notes that neither Hulu nor Amazon offers audio description for their original programming.

Sorry, it just bugs me a little to see Netflix getting praise while the folks who deserve the real credit get ignored by that Variety article.
posted by mediareport at 8:24 AM on June 22, 2015 [6 favorites]


NPR'S coverage notes both the fan pressure and the lawsuits that have been filed to force Netflix to comply with the ADA. Courts have been divided over whether Netflix falls under ADA requirements, but Netflix has consistently argued it does not, and a decision by the Justice Department on the matter is on the horizon.
posted by mediareport at 8:31 AM on June 22, 2015


Netflix doesn't deserve a cookie for this, but at least they've moved on it slightly.

As Melismata points out, WGBH has been doing this for ages.

I think software developers in particular should learn to use the basics of VO on their phones so that they can implement accessibility in their apps through the whole software development lifecycle, and you never know, it might save your bacon some day if your screen dies and you need to call for help, etc. It's just a useful piece of the OS to know how to use.

Added benefit: with voiceover, you can turn down your screen entirely. This makes for way better battery life between charges. Mr. Conspiracy uses Voiceover, and his iPhone lasts forever on a charge.

I watched a few scenes with the audio descriptions and I was struck by the need to maintain consistent identities for otherwise anonymous characters in scenes like fights. As a sighted person, that information is theoretically available to me, but I often miss it, and watching scenes with the audio description helped me pick up little "oh that person he's punching now is the person he punched before" things.

This is a good point. Sixteen years of describing TV, live theatre and movies for Mr. Conspiracy has made these things totally second nature, and stuff I'm aware of even when I'm not describing things.

When people go on about blindness "heightening" other senses, I point out that it has more to do with data I as a sighted person would ordinarily tune out rather than pay attention to. Then I have to make a determination as to whether it's useful to the scene at hand or relevant to the plot, characters, etc.

My all-time favourite homebrew description is still the very NSFW sex scene in Team America: World Police.

It's not without its disappointments, though. A few weeks ago, I narrated a full episode of House of Cards. As the end credits rolled, I said "well, that's an interesting development," I got no response from the couch.

"Hey, are you awake?

"Huh? Yeah, of course of I'm awake."

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"XYZ"

"That was in the first two minutes!"

Sigh.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:35 AM on June 22, 2015 [8 favorites]


And the National Federation of the Blind has been fighting this for ages (link to article about their lawsuit and other issues with AOL in 2003). Does Netflix think that they're special or something?
posted by Melismata at 8:39 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm kind of disappointed by this - Cox is just one more in a long line of sighted actors playing blind characters; there's nothing terribly novel or award-worthy about that, to me. Especially, as others have noted, given the work done by activists to educate and advocate for audio description.

Also, whatever cred Netflix gets for finally doing audio description has to be balanced against the clumsy way they rolled it out - *after* the Daredevil premiere, and with no announcement when the series premiered to the effect of "hey, this is coming - sorry it's coming late".
posted by spaceman_spiff at 8:49 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


Since someone asked, I can't remember the last time someone on Netflix didn't have subtitles. It did take them way too long to get there, though.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 8:52 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


Nexflix is too busy disrupting to comply with regulations.
posted by benzenedream at 9:06 AM on June 22, 2015


They have subtitles, but they are lower quality than most network TV's. They don't use space to indicate speakers (left side of screen for actor on left, right for right). They often omit non-speech info like gunshots, door slamming, sobbing – details that viewers use to make sense of characters' behavior. Finally Netflix subtitles provide literal details of background music, such as "low orchestral music" when it's not part of the action depicted. If Annie, on screen, picks up her clarinet and blows a sour note, the watching public needs to know
posted by Jesse the K at 9:21 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


But on topic, wtf does a sighted actor get props for playing a blind character? If there are blind superheroes they're keeping a low profile, but there are many blind athletes -- skiers, runners, water-skiers, equestrians, martial artists -- as well as lawyers and advocates whose work is more deserving of the center ring.
posted by Jesse the K at 9:23 AM on June 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


Jesse the K: “They have subtitles, but they are lower quality than most network TV's. They don't use space to indicate speakers (left side of screen for actor on left, right for right). They often omit non-speech info like gunshots, door slamming, sobbing – details that viewers use to make sense of characters' behavior. Finally Netflix subtitles provide literal details of background music, such as ‘low orchestral music’ when it's not part of the action depicted. If Annie, on screen, picks up her clarinet and blows a sour note, the watching public needs to know”

Well, they seem to try to import them from whatever source they're getting the video from; the Daredevil ones were good, but I don't watch a lot of stuff that Netflix themselves have subtitled, I guess.

I will say that British shows carried on Netflix – both from ITV and BBC – have markedly higher-quality subtitles than most of the stuff they have. True, they still don't have space-demarked stereo separation, which would be really useful; but they do all the small necessary stuff, marking sound effects and musical cues and doing these things consistently. The careful and consistent use of the (!) to denote sarcasm is a good indicator of whether captions are going to be good, and the Netflix stuff for BBC and ITV shows seem to be functioning at that level of professionalism at almost all times.

Of course, some stuff appears to have been done by Netflix themselves, or someone else on the food chain. The last season of Midsomer Murders had really and truly crap captions – apparently machine-generated and very lightly fixed, tons of typos and inconsistencies, no effects or musical cues whatsoever. Captions were next to useless then, so I guess that's a taste of what they must usually be like for other shows.
posted by koeselitz at 9:35 AM on June 22, 2015


I'm kind of disappointed by this - Cox is just one more in a long line of sighted actors playing blind characters; there's nothing terribly novel or award-worthy about that, to me.

And indicative of a whole problem in the casting of the roles to begin with...

"We can accommodate disabled actors: we just choose not to. The problem here isn't the disability, but attitudes about disability."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:10 AM on June 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


I'm kind of disappointed by this - Cox is just one more in a long line of sighted actors playing blind characters; there's nothing terribly novel or award-worthy about that, to me.

On top of that, he plays a nominally blind person with a superpower that allows him to, for a great number of practical purposes, see. He can't read printed text or see images, but apart from that he's not playing a functionally blind person at all. This seems like a PR move capitalizing on the popularity of a program.
posted by George_Spiggott at 10:19 AM on June 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


The careful and consistent use of the (!) to denote sarcasm

Oh wow, I had no idea that this was a thing! That is AWESOME. (Not sarcastic.)
posted by Melismata at 10:20 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


He can't read printed text or see images, but apart from that he's not playing a functionally blind person at all. This seems like a PR move capitalizing on the popularity of a program.

Yeah. I've only nipped in and out of a couple of episodes when they've been on in the house. But I can say this: his cane technique is functionally useless for navigation.

I made mention of it in this Fanfare thread but didn't go too far with it since I hadn't watched the full episode or series and didn't want to hijack the thread endlessly. But I thought it needed some mention.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:24 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


his cane technique is functionally useless for navigation.

There's a bit of a meta-portrayal there that has been a thing in the comics for a while, that as Matt he deliberately hides how much he can navigate the world and plays up his helplessness quite a bit. Daredevil walking around the streets can tell what's coming up around him and doesn't need the cane, so it makes sense that he's using it for show. I don't know how much credit to give the show and Cox for this - but there's an in-universe explanation. Also how much more comfortably Matt moves around his apartment when only he or Stick or ?Night Nurse? are there.
posted by Space Coyote at 10:39 AM on June 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


There's a bit of a meta-portrayal there that has been a thing in the comics for a while, that as Matt he deliberately hides how much he can navigate the world and plays up his helplessness quite a bit. Daredevil walking around the streets can tell what's coming up around him and doesn't need the cane, so it makes sense that he's using it for show. I don't know how much credit to give the show and Cox for this - but there's an in-universe explanation.

Ah. Good to know.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:44 AM on June 22, 2015


Space Coyote your Marvel No-Prize is in the mail.
posted by RobotHero at 1:38 PM on June 22, 2015 [5 favorites]


LOOK MARVEL, LOOK, PEOPLE LIKE SENSORY-IMPAIRED HEROES

IT'S TIME FOR A HAWKGUYS SHOW WITH HARD OF HEARING CLINT

DO IT

DO THE THING
posted by NoraReed at 4:59 PM on June 22, 2015 [6 favorites]


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