The ADNA Presents
The Audio Description Network Alliance presents this interview series with professionals and other experts.
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269 - Bryan Duarte part 2: Who Gets to Read a Face in Public
10/06/2026
269 - Bryan Duarte part 2: Who Gets to Read a Face in Public
Part 2 with Bryan Duarte, co-founder and CTO of HapWare. In the ALEYE app, a wearer builds presets for work, home or date night and picks which cues come through. The options include a smile, a furrowed brow (cmon AD writers, you know that one), a handshake, a fist bump and, yes, the middle finger. Bryan explains why the camera is still the hardest problem: 15 frames per second on Meta glasses, 51 on an iPhone. He also takes on the harder question of what happens when the person being read never agreed to it. His answer draws on 13 years with his guide dog, Dixon, and on what happened to guide dog access once people started putting vests on their pets. He's taking the same case to legislators writing new camera laws. Audio Description gives blind audiences the smile on screen. Bryan is working on the smile across the table.
/episode/index/show/theadna/id/43027098
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268 - Bryan Duarte - Hapware - part 1
09/29/2026
268 - Bryan Duarte - Hapware - part 1
Bryan Duarte lost his sight at 18 in a motorcycle accident. He went on to earn a PhD in computer science studying one question: can touch carry what sight usually carries? Today he's co-founder and CTO of HapWare, building ALEYE. It's a wristband paired with a camera that reads facial expressions, gestures and body language. It plays each one as a pattern of vibrations on the wearer's wrist. In Part 1, Bryan talks about what the wristband feels like after a few hours and why learning the patterns is like learning a new ringtone. He also explains why HapWare stopped trying to tell a slight smile from a big one. Audio Description runs into the same question. A script can say "She smiles." The performance decides whether that smile is flirty, sarcastic or barely there. ALEYE tells the wearer someone smiled and leaves the meaning to them.
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Timothy Prewitt: Don't Look at the Top of the Mountain
09/01/2026
Timothy Prewitt: Don't Look at the Top of the Mountain
Timothy Prewitt spent 30 years across 16 countries, solving seemingly unsolvable problems like hunger, water, and agriculture. To name a few: Kosovo after the war. Afghanistan. Nigeria. He ran The Hunger Project and iDE, reaching close to 13 million people a year. He also keeps a 35-year silent meditation practice, fasts alone in the mountains for four days at a stretch, and plays a lot of pinball. His work has nothing to do with Audio Description. This one is about how you start when the task in front of you is too big to look at. For Audio Description, there can be hundreds of description cues and not enough hours. Invoices nobody is paying. A career being squeezed by politics or technology. For Tim, his answer is small and usable, and it comes from Everest guides: don't look at the top of the mountain, just take the very next step. Along the way: why still water lets you see what's under it, why the people closest to a problem are the ones who solve it, and the truckload of donated hospital equipment that taught a 22-year-old idealist why good intentions need real expertise behind them. Tim writes at timprewitt.substack.com. More on the work Roy does with executives and media teams: parityendeavors.com
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You Can't Be Fast and Good
07/28/2026
You Can't Be Fast and Good
Pre-recorded for our live Comic-Con panel, The Track You Never Heard, with Colleen Connor and Anna Capezzera. Colleen is blind and runs Audio Description Training Retreats. She built it with a specific rule: the blind professional teaches, as an equal, instead of getting called in afterward to give feedback. Classes cap at eight. Notes go out ahead of time so class time is practice and feedback, nothing else. Anna oversees the Audio Description department at Deluxe. She started as a writer, then learned the audio side so she could talk to her engineers in their own language. She walks through the whole process, order to delivery, including the weekend her entire team wrote in parallel to hit a schedule that was cut to a quarter. Then the harder conversations. Distributors can drop full seasons and split them across writers, so nobody holds the whole story. Colleen makes the case for blind quality control catching what sighted QC won't. Anna makes the case for hiring blind voice performers and reading what the audience actually says. And Colleen's line, which is the whole episode in nine words: You can't be extremely fast and good at Audio Description.
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The $40,000 Bet: Soud Habbas on Trust, Small Bets, and Walking Away
07/07/2026
The $40,000 Bet: Soud Habbas on Trust, Small Bets, and Walking Away
Soud Habbas spent his career building systems for nonprofits working in some of the hardest environments in the world: Jordan, Egypt, Rwanda, and the West Bank. As chief operating officer, he made sure programs actually worked, stayed honest with funders, and didn't put people at risk. In this conversation, Soud tells the story of a $40,000 bet on a small women's dairy cooperative that outperformed programs ten times its size, and a million-dollar-a-year partnership with the John Deere Foundation that worked because of one thing: trust. He talks about what it takes to hold a partner accountable without losing the relationship, and how he's applying the same principle to his own life after a recent layoff sent him back to the bar exam he never took. If you've ever been told your idea is too small to matter, this one's for you.
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Maria Miller: Listening, Liberia, and the Girl Who Said "I'm Networking"
06/23/2026
Maria Miller: Listening, Liberia, and the Girl Who Said "I'm Networking"
Roy Samuelson sits down with Maria Miller, former Senior Private Sector Specialist with the International Finance Corporation. Maria spent 14 years traveling to more than 20 countries, including post-conflict zones, helping governments rebuild the economic rules that determine who can start a business, get a job, or build a future. She went to Liberia 3 months after a civil war ended. She monitored elections in Ethiopia. She worked in places where what she assumed was essential turned out not to be. Then she retired early and moved her work closer to home. She now sits on the board of Girls Global Academy in Washington, DC, the city's first all-girls International Baccalaureate charter school, as vice chair and head of community engagement. In this conversation: what Liberia taught her about what's essential, how you change a system slowly without claiming the credit, the personal cost of a career built across 20 countries, and what a teenage girl who said "I'm networking" revealed about why possibility has to be visible before it can be chosen.
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264: Connor Scott-Gardner, part 2: Consent, Craft, and What Audio Description Owes Its Audience
05/26/2026
264: Connor Scott-Gardner, part 2: Consent, Craft, and What Audio Description Owes Its Audience
Connor Scott-Gardner is a blind accessibility advocate, disability rights writer, and someone who has spent years thinking carefully about what it means to be helped, witnessed, and included. In this second half of our conversation, Connor names something the accessibility world doesn't say often enough: good intentions are not the same as ethical behavior. He talks about Be My Eyes volunteers who filmed blind users without consent, what that reveals about power and trust, and why intent is never the whole story. He also turns the mirror on himself, reflecting on a viral video he made years ago that still sits uncomfortably with him. Then the conversation opens up. Connor shares his complicated early relationship with Audio Description, how the field has changed in its treatment of race and identity, and why the expansion into live performance, including ballet, represents something bigger than access. It represents a field that is finally asking the right questions. This is a conversation about trust, craft, and what it looks like when an industry stops assuming it knows what its audience needs and starts listening instead.
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263: Awareness Isn't Enough: Connor Scott-Gardner on What Actually Changes Things, Part 1 of 2
05/19/2026
263: Awareness Isn't Enough: Connor Scott-Gardner on What Actually Changes Things, Part 1 of 2
Connor Scott-Gardner has presented at the European Parliament, Westminster, and SXSW. He also goes home, gets tired, and sometimes thinks he hasn't done anything. This podcast will prove that he has done much. In this first conversation, he talks about what genuine support for blind young people looks like up close, and what gets in the way of it. He names a trap he's fallen into himself: pointing out every barrier without offering a direction. And he explains why awareness, on its own, has a ceiling. This is a precise, generous conversation with someone who has thought hard about the difference between performing concern and actually creating change. Part 2 is coming.
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Dr. Cynthia Bennett Part 2: What We Lose When We Stop Describing Things to Each Other
05/05/2026
Dr. Cynthia Bennett Part 2: What We Lose When We Stop Describing Things to Each Other
Something went wrong during a live show. An aerial performer fell. The Audio Description professional described it as it happened. Then told the audience the performer was okay. No script covered that moment. No algorithm was ready for it. A human was paying attention, and that made all the difference. Dr. Cynthia Bennett is a blind researcher at Google who studies what happens when technology is built without the people it's supposed to serve. In this conversation, we get into why imperfect, unpredictable human moments are exactly what AI struggles with most. Why she thinks claiming to be objective is less honest than just telling you where you stand. And how the process of making research accessible to her, as a blind researcher, actually changed what her research found. This one stays with you.
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261 - Quality at Scale: Josh Miller on What Accessibility Actually Costs
04/28/2026
261 - Quality at Scale: Josh Miller on What Accessibility Actually Costs
Josh Miller came to accessibility through telecom, media consulting, and a business school project at MIT. That project ran headfirst into a quote so high it would have eaten up half the program's annual budget. That collision between intention and financial reality is where 3Play Media was born. 19 years later, Josh leads one of the largest media accessibility company in North America, serving over ten thousand customers across education, entertainment, and enterprise. He sits on the CTA's Content and Entertainment Council. He has watched captions go from a niche accommodation to something people without hearing loss prefer. And now, he's watching Audio Description continue on that same journey. In this conversation, Josh talks about what it actually takes to build quality at scale, why not all content is equal (and what that means), and what he believes filmmakers owe a blind audience as storytellers. He also says a sentence that carries a lot: Accessibility is about enabling people to consume content however they want or need to. We unpack what it means in practice.
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260 - Dr. Cynthia Bennett: Who Gets Left Out When We Build for Access
04/21/2026
260 - Dr. Cynthia Bennett: Who Gets Left Out When We Build for Access
Dr. Cynthia Bennett is a blind researcher at Google who studies the AI systems that are supposed to serve blind people. She found out blind people were making Audio Description, and she, a blind person, had no idea. That gap changed how she works. In this conversation, we get into what authentic representation actually requires, why "good enough" accessibility protects the wrong people, and the tool she helped build so blind professionals can finally create AD themselves.
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Episode 259. The Darkroom Returns: On Credits, Craft, and What Belonging Sounds Like
04/14/2026
Episode 259. The Darkroom Returns: On Credits, Craft, and What Belonging Sounds Like
Alex Howard and Lee Pugsley are back on The ADNA Presents, and a lot has changed since their first visit. The Darkroom podcast hosts and co-founders of the Blind Film Critic Society join Roy Samuelson for a conversation about what it means when blind critics evaluate Audio Description -- not just as consumers, but as people who can now name the performers, writers, and engineers responsible for the work. They talk about why crediting the full Audio Description team is gaining ground, how the back catalog movement is raising the bar for quality, and what it looks like when the field shifts from technical compliance to genuine artistic contribution. Alex also shares something personal: that bad Audio Description at a movie theater still makes him feel like he doesn't belong. It's a quiet, honest moment that says something important about what's actually at stake. The Blind Film Critic Society is growing. Darkroom is expanding its scope. And the conversation about who gets credited -- and who gets to evaluate that work -- is getting sharper.
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The ADNA Presents: Darian Rodriguez Heyman: You Don’t Have To Sacrifice To Do The Right Thing
03/31/2026
The ADNA Presents: Darian Rodriguez Heyman: You Don’t Have To Sacrifice To Do The Right Thing
Darian Rodriguez Heyman has spent thirty years helping mission-led organizations stop reinventing the wheel. He's the author of AI for Nonprofits, founder of Helping People Help, and someone who has thought seriously about why good intentions so often produce predictable, avoidable mistakes. What drew me to this conversation is that the gap he keeps closing, between what's available and what people actually reach for, lives in Audio Description too. We talk about the nonprofit assumption, what AI adoption actually looks like inside organizations right now, and why the accessibility sector may be solving important problems, and why you don't have to live in sacrifice to do the right thing. There's also a moment where he shares something he couldn't find while researching his book. It stuck with me. I think it'll stick with you too.
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Blind Film Critics Give the Oscars Their Own Awards
03/24/2026
Blind Film Critics Give the Oscars Their Own Awards
Lee Pugsley and Alex Howard of The Dark Room watched this year's Oscar ceremony with audio description on, and they brought friends. John Stark, and the newest Blind Film Critic Society member Ren Leach, join them to hand out their own awards, debate the night's surprises and snubs, and reflect on what it actually felt like to experience the telecast as a blind audience member. They get specific. Who got named from the stage, which nominated films still don't have audio description, and what the Marlee Matlin captioning moment means for the conversation ahead. This is a cross-post from The Dark Room, a podcast by two legally blind cinephiles for film lovers of all abilities. Subscribe to their show, and if you want to go deeper on the professionals who make audio description possible, that's what The ADNA Presents is here for.
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256: Joanne Levine - At Heart, A Storyteller
03/24/2026
256: Joanne Levine - At Heart, A Storyteller
Joanne Levine has spent her career making sure people who aren't physically there, could still experience what happened there. As founding head of programming for Al Jazeera English in the Americas, a producer for Nightline and ABC World News Tonight, and a Senior Advisor for Media at the State Department, she has worked across continents, cultures, and crises. She speaks multiple languages. She has reported from conflict zones and sat with world leaders. In this conversation, we talk about the craft of storytelling across formats, what it costs to translate one world for another, and what a person who has covered everything does, when the most interesting territory left is figuring out what comes next.
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Scott McCarthy - VP Localization Dreamworks: We breathe in one language and exhale another.
03/17/2026
Scott McCarthy - VP Localization Dreamworks: We breathe in one language and exhale another.
What does it take to make a joke land in a language it was never written for? How do you know when the emotional contract with an audience has held, and when has it broken? Scott McCarthy has been sitting with those questions for more than twenty years. As VP of Localization at DreamWorks Animation Television, he oversees dubbing across 30+ markets, from Shrek to preschool series to song-heavy productions, each one requiring a different set of creative partners, a different set of decisions, and a different kind of trust. In this conversation, Scott shares a description of localization work that stopped both of us cold: "We breathe in X language and we exhale Y." From there, we go deep into what trust actually means between a content creator and an audience, why choosing the right studio partners in each market is more important than any single script decision, and why he believes a great dub deserves to be called an original production. We find common ground between localization and audio description: two fields that often get misclassified as translation, when what they actually involve is millions of tiny creative decisions, layered on top of each other, in service of a single goal. The seamlessness is the craft. And we talk about AI honestly, with care for everyone navigating this, including the people under real pressure to move faster than the audience's trust can absorb. This one went somewhere neither of us planned. We are already scheduling part two.
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J. Michael Collins
03/10/2026
J. Michael Collins
J. Michael Collins has 30 years in voiceover, 50+ industry awards, and runs the largest voiceover conference in the world. He also still has things worth saying. In this conversation, J. Michael and Roy talk about why the voiceover industry is unusually decent, what abundance actually means in a business full of competition, and how Audio Description continues to earn its place at the table at VO Atlanta. J. Michael is candid about the cost of people-pleasing, the math of saying no, and what it looks like to take real risks in a career that spans agency work, online casting, and everything the pandemic threw at everyone. If you are curious about Audio Description and want to hear from someone who built his career by moving toward things before everyone else caught on, this one is worth your time. If you like, please share and like!
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Maren Garcia
02/24/2026
Maren Garcia
Voice actor Maren Garcia joins host Roy Samuelson to talk about how she first discovered Audio Description, and why it immediately felt personal. Maren shares the moment she was hired for a full feature film, after being found through the Disabled Voice Actors Directory, a resource built to support authentic casting. She talks candidly about vetting an unfamiliar company before saying yes, then falling in love with audio description as both craft and service. They dig into what makes audio description work when it is done well: intention, empathy, and choices that support the story. Audio description is the narration track that communicates essential visual information that the audio alone cannot carry. Maren also describes an experiment watching a dance show with audio description, just to feel how writers and performers decide what matters when everything is visual. Then the conversation pivots to NPC Chronicles, a Kickstarter soundboard project for Dungeons & Dragons non-playable characters, and why Maren sees it as an access and connection tool, inspired by assistive communication devices and her experience working with kids with disabilities. A soundboard is essentially an on-demand toolbox of sounds you can trigger in real time. Follow Maren at @MarenGarciaVO.
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251 - David Grabias "Brailled It"
01/21/2026
251 - David Grabias "Brailled It"
Join Roy Samuelson as he chats with Emmy-winning filmmaker David Grabias about his groundbreaking documentary "Brailled It." Grabias shares his innovative approach to incorporating audio description and working with blind filmmakers, challenging traditional views on cinema. Learn how this unique project redefines collaboration and creativity in filmmaking, and get an exclusive peek into its premiere at the Slam Dance Film Festival. Don't miss this exciting discussion that poses the thought-provoking question: 'What is blind cinema?’ If you like this podcast, please like, subscribe, share, and rate with a review.
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Story Over Sight: Rethinking Audio Description with Alison Eardley
11/25/2025
Story Over Sight: Rethinking Audio Description with Alison Eardley
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 living moss became one of the most compelling examples of inclusive storytelling you've ever heard. Whether you're in film, television, museums, or simply obsessed with great narratives, this conversation will expand how you think about sensory experience-and why AD has the potential to enrich everyone's engagement, not just those who rely on it. It's warm, thoughtful, surprising, and full of perspective shifts you'll carry with you into your next project.
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The ADNA Presents: Rebecca Odum
10/28/2025
The ADNA Presents: Rebecca Odum
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
10/21/2025
Why Bob Bergen Endorsed Roy Samuelson for Performer Governor
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 pushing for audio description performer recognition, Bob's story is a masterclass in advocacy with impact.
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The ADNA Presents: Tabitha Kenlon: Connection Beyond the Ocular
10/13/2025
The ADNA Presents: Tabitha Kenlon: Connection Beyond the Ocular
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. You'll hear insights that reach far beyond education: from redefining presence to building authentic connection in spaces where visuals fall short. If you've ever wondered what inclusion sounds like in practice, this episode is a masterclass in human-centered connection.
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Layers of Storytelling: Horror, Sound, and the Power of Audio Description
10/07/2025
Layers of Storytelling: Horror, Sound, and the Power of Audio Description
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
09/30/2025
Bridget Interviews Roy part 3
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 a powerful reflection on the ADNA's wishlist of shows (and how that list is quietly shrinking thanks to unseen efforts and community pressure). They unpack what makes audio description succeed or fail: from clunky synthetic voices to breathtaking human narration, and explore Roy's vision for “Kevin's Way,” a tone that signals to blind audiences that they're in good hands. It's a wide-ranging, emotionally resonant, and eye-opening conversation that challenges how we think about advocacy, allyship, and the evolving role of AI in storytelling. Listen in to hear how change happens, not with one loud speech, but through years of unseen effort, deep collaboration, and a refusal to give up.
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Blind Joy, Real Stories, and Audio Description That Hits
09/23/2025
Blind Joy, Real Stories, and Audio Description That Hits
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
09/16/2025
The ADNA Presents: SOVAS 2025
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 stage at Lincoln Center.
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The ADNA Presents: Paul Conley: Turning Possibility Into Power
09/09/2025
The ADNA Presents: Paul Conley: Turning Possibility Into Power
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 employment (and how to fix it). Simple ways you can mentor, hire, and support blind professionals. If you're ready to stop drifting and start designing a life (and workplace) full of clarity, intention, and impact, this episode is your wake-up call.
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From Unicorn to Community: John Stark and the Rise of Blind Film Critics (John Stark Part 2)
09/02/2025
From Unicorn to Community: John Stark and the Rise of Blind Film Critics (John Stark Part 2)
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 hear more than just one “unicorn” perspective. Stark outlines his vision for the next one and five years: increasing representation in critics' organizations, doubling the amount of audio described content on streaming platforms, and shifting the narrative around accessibility from tokenism to true inclusion. The conversation digs into his views on audio description quality, the dangers of over-relying on text-to-speech, and the frustration of studios sitting on existing AD tracks without making them available. Stark also discusses the tension of being a critic in a small field-where honest reviews can sometimes clash with the companies he wants to support. Through it all, his message is clear: blind and low-vision audiences deserve full access to film, and blind critics deserve a seat at the table in shaping cultural conversations about cinema.
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