Layers of Storytelling: Horror, Sound, and the Power of Audio Description
Release Date: 10/07/2025
Story Over Sight: Rethinking Audio Description with Alison Eardley
The ADNA Presents
What happens when we stop treating audio description as an afterthought, and start treating it as storytelling? In this episode of The ADNA Presents, Roy Samuelson sits down with researcher and accessibility innovator Alison Eardley, whose work reshapes how museums understand inclusion, perception, and the power of narrative. Allison reveals why audio description guides attention, builds emotional journeys, and creates experiences where everyone belongs. SO much more than visuals. She shares how pan-disabled co-creation transforms design, why “neutrality” is a myth, and how a patch of...
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The ADNA Presents: Rebecca Odum
The ADNA Presents
Audio description is crafted, refined, and checked with extraordinary care, with thanks to quality control specialists. On this episode of The ADNA Presents, Roy Samuelson interviews Rebecca Odom, a blind audio description quality control specialist whose expertise ensures that scripts, narration, and final mixes deliver clear, authentic, and emotionally aligned storytelling. She discusses the evolving landscape of AD, the behind-the-scenes work of QC specialists, and how professionals like herself are shaping the future of accessibility in entertainment.
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Why Bob Bergen Endorsed Roy Samuelson for Performer Governor
The ADNA Presents
In this special episode of The ADNA Presents, we're doing something different. And deeply personal. Voiceover icon and longtime Television Academy leader Bob Bergen shares his journey advocating for voice actors, opening the doors to inclusion, and why he's endorsing me, Roy Samuelson, for Governor of the Performers Peer Group. If you care about how performers gain recognition, how accessibility reshapes inclusion, or how AI is already impacting our craft? This episode delivers a front-row seat to how real change happens behind the scenes. From fighting for VO membership in the Academy to...
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The ADNA Presents: Tabitha Kenlon: Connection Beyond the Ocular
The ADNA Presents
What happens when you start teaching for connection? In this conversation with Dr. Tabitha Kenlon, an English professor who teaches students across the world (including in Afghanistan), we explore what it really means to see one another when sight isn't the main channel. Tabitha shares how her experiences with low vision reshaped her classroom, and how vulnerability, curiosity, and access can transform both teaching and storytelling. We talk about authority as a bridge instead of a throne, about “sprinkling” inclusion instead of siloing it, and how risk can become an act of generosity....
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Layers of Storytelling: Horror, Sound, and the Power of Audio Description
The ADNA Presents
Filmmaker Naomi Ross thought audio description was just an obligation - until it changed the way her whole family watches movies. Join Roy Samuelson as they dive into the power of sound, representation, and what happens when storytelling becomes an invitation instead of a checkbox.
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Bridget Interviews Roy part 3
The ADNA Presents
In this final segment of Bridget's interview, Roy Samuelson pulls back the curtain on a years-long campaign to get audio description performers formally recognized by the Television Academy, a move that opens the door for blind professionals to take their rightful place at the table. He shares the staggering 180-degree shift from being told “there's nothing we can do” to a full green light, and reveals what happened behind the scenes to make it possible. Roy and Bridget dive into the emotional labor, strategic advocacy, and sometimes frustrating opacity of accessibility progress, including...
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Blind Joy, Real Stories, and Audio Description That Hits
The ADNA Presents
A film about blindness that actually gets it right: Roy sits down with Tony Stephens of the American Foundation for the Blind to talk Possibilities, a powerful new doc that reclaims Helen Keller's legacy and centers blind voices, on-screen and behind the scenes. From international buzz to an all-blind audio description team, this episode dives into what it really means to make media that's not just accessible, but authentically inclusive.
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The ADNA Presents: SOVAS 2025
The ADNA Presents
Think voice acting is just “reading into a mic”? Joan Baker once threw a creative director behind the booth. They sweated, stumbled, and left saying: “I had no idea this was so hard.” That's the point. In this episode of The ADNA Presents, Joan Baker & Rudy Gaskins, co-founders of SOVAS (That's Voiceover Career Expo + the Voice Arts Awards), pull back the curtain on contests that launch careers, scholarships that pay off in real gigs, and the teary, unforgettable moments when voice actors finally get the recognition they deserve. Expect laughter, strategy, and yes, even a kiss on...
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The ADNA Presents: Paul Conley: Turning Possibility Into Power
The ADNA Presents
What does hitting snooze have to do with solving a 75% unemployment rate for blind professionals? Everything. In this episode, Roy Samuelson sits down with Paul Conley, Executive Director of the TAD Foundation, to explore how possibility becomes action, and how blind talent are rewriting the rules of leadership, confidence, and career success. We cover: Why audio description is more than access - it's opportunity. How the TAD Foundation equips blind students with Fortune 500 skills. The secret mindset shift that turns rejection into rocket fuel. What businesses get wrong about disability...
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From Unicorn to Community: John Stark and the Rise of Blind Film Critics (John Stark Part 2)
The ADNA Presents
In this episode, blind film critic John Stark shares his lifelong passion for movies and how it led him to watch and review over 500 films a year for more than two decades. From his early days reading Entertainment Weekly at age nine and being inspired by Jurassic Park, to becoming a recognized critic on Rotten Tomatoes, Stark explains what fuels his love of cinema and his unique perspective as a blind critic. He talks about founding the Blind Film Critics Society with Alex and Lee, with the goal of building a community of diverse blind and low-vision voices in film criticism-so audiences can...
info_outlineFilmmaker Naomi Ross thought audio description was just an obligation - until it changed the way her whole family watches movies.
Join Roy Samuelson as they dive into the power of sound, representation, and what happens when storytelling becomes an invitation instead of a checkbox.