20250627 1900 Constitution and Bylaws Originally Broadcasted June 27, 2025, on ACB Media 1

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20250625 1900 Resolutions Originally Broadcasted June 25, 2025 on ACB Media 1

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20250624 1900 Resolutions Originally Broadcasted June 24, 2025 on ACB Media 1

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20250623 1900 ACB Convention Call to Order Originally Broadcasted June 23, 2025 on ACB Media 1 nominating committee

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ACB NextGen Candidates Forum

This is ACB Next Generation's second annual Candidates Forum. During this event, we hear from the individuals seeking election to the ACB Board of Directors. Just like last year, our NextGen members have submitted questions for the candidates to answer during the event.

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Explanation of the Enclosed document

In alignment with the principles established in ACB Resolution 2021-22, which affirms the organization's support for the use of human voices in audio description, the following document entitled "Guidelines and Best Practices for the Use of Text to Speech (TTS) in Audio Description is proposed for adoption by the membership of the American Council of the Blind and will be introduced as a motion on Wednesday June 24. This document provides updated, actionable guidance to ensure that when TTS is used, it meets high standards of quality, transparency, and inclusion, and that it is never employed in ways that diminish accessibility or audience experience. The standards herein are intended to supplement the 2021 resolution by addressing current technological trends while upholding ACB’s core values. American Council of the Blind Audio Description Project

Explanation of the Enclosed document In alignment with the principles established in ACB Resolution 2021-22, which affirms the organization's support for the use of human voices in audio description, the following document entitled "Guidelines and Best Practices for the Use of Text to Speech (TTS) in Audio Description is proposed for adoption by the membership of the American Council of the Blind and will be introduced as a motion on Wednesday June 24. This document provides updated, actionable guidance to ensure that when TTS is used, it meets high standards of quality, transparency, and inclusion, and that it is never employed in ways that diminish accessibility or audience experience. The standards herein are intended to supplement the 2021 resolution by addressing current technological trends while upholding ACB’s core values.

American Council of the Blind Audio Description Project Guidelines and Best Practices for the Use of Text-to-Speech (TTS) in Audio Description

June 2025

Submitted by: ACB Audio Description project Steering committee and endorsed by the ACB Advocacy Steering committee

Introduction

Audio Description (AD) provides blind and low vision individuals with vital access to visual media. Traditionally, human-voiced narration has set the gold standard for AD, offering expressiveness, emotional nuance, and clarity. Thus, the American Council of the Blind supports the use of human-voiced audio description as the preferred mode of its provision for consumers. (Resolution 2021-22). As advances in Text-to-Speech (TTS) and AI-generated voices become more prevalent, it is critical to ensure that their use maintains and never diminishes the quality, dignity, and accessibility of Audio Description. This document outlines the American Council of the Blind’s (ACB) Guidelines and Best Practices for the responsible use of TTS in Audio Description.

Core Principles

• Equity of Access: Blind and low vision individuals must receive a media experience that is as equivalent as possible in richness, clarity, and engagement to that of sighted audiences. • Human Centric Quality: Human voiced Audio Description remains the gold standard. • Responsible Technology Use: Where TTS is used, it must meet or approximate the quality standards of human narration. • Transparency: Audiences must be informed when TTS is used. • Inclusion: Blind and low vision individuals must participate in and be a part of the evaluation and quality control of AD projects, including AD scripts. Guidelines for TTS in Audio Description • Voice Quality: Natural, human like intonation. Avoid robotic or mechanical delivery. Emotional tone should match the context of the scene. Ensure clear articulation and consistent pronunciation, especially for names, technical terms, and cultural references. • Timing and Pacing: Proper synchronization with on-screen action. Use natural pausing and breathing patterns to support listener comprehension. • Pronunciation and Clarity: Accurate pronunciation of names, places, idioms, and foreign terms. Respect culturally specific pronunciation and dialects. • Emotional Engagement: Convey appropriate emotional tone urgency, tension, tenderness, excitement, through vocal modulation and pitch. • Audio and Sound Quality: High Fidelity Audio Output: Minimum 48kHz/24-bit preferred for narration tracks. • Mixing and Balance: Ensure clear, audible narration. Use techniques such as audio ducking when appropriate to prevent program audio from overpowering the description. • Consistent Volume Levels: Comply with loudness standards (e.g., EBU R128, ATSC A/85). • No Audio Artifacts: Audio must be free from distortion, glitches, hiss, or dropouts. • Stereo/Surround Compatibility: Narration must sound correct on stereo and surround sound systems. • Ambient Sound Respect: Retain environmental sounds essential to storytelling when possible. Best Practices for Implementation • Prioritize Human Voice: TTS should only be used when human-voiced narration is not feasible due to logistical or production constraints, and never purely as a cost saving measure. • Invest in High-Quality TTS: Choose TTS engines designed for expressiveness, emotional nuance, and accessibility. Avoid generic or monotone systems. • Rigorous Quality Assurance: All TTS-generated AD must be reviewed by human experts, including blind and low vision professionals. Evaluation must cover both content and technical quality. • Sound Quality Testing: Conduct listening tests on both professional equipment and consumer devices. Ensure consistent audio quality and proper sound mixing in various listening environments. • Audience Notification: Clearly inform audiences when TTS is used (e.g., through accessibility settings, credits, or metadata). When feasible, offer a human-narrated version — though we recognize this may not always be practical. Ethical Considerations • Respect for the Audience: Accessibility should never be an afterthought or a budget-based compromise. • Quality Over Cost: The decision to use TTS must prioritize the quality of the audience experience. • Community Involvement: Blind and low vision individuals must be integral to the development, testing, and approval of TTS-based Audio Description. Common Audio Quality Failures to Avoid • Voice and Narration Failures: o Robotic or mechanical sounding voices; o Monotone or emotionally flat delivery; o Mispronunciations; Rushed, lagging, or unnatural pacing • Audio Recording and Mixing Failures: o Low-fidelity, muffled, or over-compressed narration; o Audio clipping, hiss, or distortion; o Overpowering or too-soft narration relative to program audio; o Poor integration with dialogue, music, or sound effects; o Digital artifacts or audio dropouts • Accessibility Failures: o Incorrect audio channel mapping; o Inconsistent quality across segments or episodes; o Implementation Tools Studio / Provider Checklist: • Prioritize human narration where possible. Choose expressive, high quality TTS voices. • Ensure human review of content and technical quality. • Clearly notify audiences of TTS use. • Provide feedback channels for blind and low vision viewers. • Commit to continuous improvement based on audience input.

Conclusion

Synthetic narration technologies are rapidly evolving. Yet the purpose of Audio Description remains unchanged: to provide blind and low vision individuals with media experiences that are equal in emotional depth, quality, and engagement to those of sighted audiences. The American Council of the Blind urges all media creators, streaming platforms, and content producers to adopt these guidelines, uphold excellence, and advance equity and inclusion in every accessible media offering.

June 2025

Submitted by: ACB Audio Description project Steering committee and endorsed by the ACB Advocacy Steering committee

Introduction

Audio Description (AD) provides blind and low vision individuals with vital access to visual media. Traditionally, human-voiced narration has set the gold standard for AD, offering expressiveness, emotional nuance, and clarity. Thus, the American Council of the Blind supports the use of human-voiced audio description as the preferred mode of its provision for consumers. (Resolution 2021-22). As advances in Text-to-Speech (TTS) and AI-generated voices become more prevalent, it is critical to ensure that their use maintains and never diminishes the quality, dignity, and accessibility of Audio Description. This document outlines the American Council of the Blind’s (ACB) Guidelines and Best Practices for the responsible use of TTS in Audio Description.

Core Principles

·       Equity of Access: Blind and low vision individuals must receive a media experience that is as equivalent as possible in richness, clarity, and engagement to that of sighted audiences. ·       Human Centric Quality: Human voiced Audio Description remains the gold standard. ·       Responsible Technology Use: Where TTS is used, it must meet or approximate the quality standards of human narration. ·       Transparency: Audiences must be informed when TTS is used. ·       Inclusion: Blind and low vision individuals must participate in and be a part of the evaluation and quality control of AD projects, including AD scripts.

Guidelines for TTS in Audio Description

·       Voice Quality: Natural, human like intonation. Avoid robotic or mechanical delivery. Emotional tone should match the context of the scene. Ensure clear articulation and consistent pronunciation, especially for names, technical terms, and cultural references. ·       Timing and Pacing: Proper synchronization with on-screen action. Use natural pausing and breathing patterns to support listener comprehension. ·       Pronunciation and Clarity: Accurate pronunciation of names, places, idioms, and foreign terms. Respect culturally specific pronunciation and dialects. ·       Emotional Engagement: Convey appropriate emotional tone urgency, tension, tenderness, excitement, through vocal modulation and pitch. ·       Audio and Sound Quality: High Fidelity Audio Output: Minimum 48kHz/24-bit preferred for narration tracks. ·       Mixing and Balance: Ensure clear, audible narration. Use techniques such as audio ducking when appropriate to prevent program audio from overpowering the description. ·       Consistent Volume Levels: Comply with loudness standards (e.g., EBU R128, ATSC A/85). ·       No Audio Artifacts: Audio must be free from distortion, glitches, hiss, or dropouts. ·       Stereo/Surround Compatibility: Narration must sound correct on stereo and surround sound systems. ·       Ambient Sound Respect: Retain environmental sounds essential to storytelling when possible.

Best Practices for Implementation

·       Prioritize Human Voice: TTS should only be used when human-voiced narration is not feasible due to logistical or production constraints, and never purely as a cost saving measure. ·       Invest in High-Quality TTS: Choose TTS engines designed for expressiveness, emotional nuance, and accessibility. Avoid generic or monotone systems. ·       Rigorous Quality Assurance: All TTS-generated AD must be reviewed by human experts, including blind and low vision professionals. Evaluation must cover both content and technical quality. ·       Sound Quality Testing: Conduct listening tests on both professional equipment and consumer devices. Ensure consistent audio quality and proper sound mixing in various listening environments. ·       Audience Notification: Clearly inform audiences when TTS is used (e.g., through accessibility settings, credits, or metadata). When feasible, offer a human-narrated version — though we recognize this may not always be practical.

Ethical Considerations

·       Respect for the Audience: Accessibility should never be an afterthought or a budget-based compromise. ·       Quality Over Cost: The decision to use TTS must prioritize the quality of the audience experience. ·       Community Involvement: Blind and low vision individuals must be integral to the development, testing, and approval of TTS-based Audio Description.

Common Audio Quality Failures to Avoid

·       Voice and Narration Failures: o   Robotic or mechanical sounding voices; o   Monotone or emotionally flat delivery; o   Mispronunciations; Rushed, lagging, or unnatural pacing ·       Audio Recording and Mixing Failures: o   Low-fidelity, muffled, or over-compressed narration; o   Audio clipping, hiss, or distortion; o   Overpowering or too-soft narration relative to program audio; o   Poor integration with dialogue, music, or sound effects; o   Digital artifacts or audio dropouts ·       Accessibility Failures: o   Incorrect audio channel mapping; o   Inconsistent quality across segments or episodes; o   Implementation Tools

Studio / Provider Checklist:

·       Prioritize human narration where possible. Choose expressive, high quality TTS voices. ·       Ensure human review of content and technical quality. ·       Clearly notify audiences of TTS use. ·       Provide feedback channels for blind and low vision viewers. ·       Commit to continuous improvement based on audience input.

Conclusion

Synthetic narration technologies are rapidly evolving. Yet the purpose of Audio Description remains unchanged: to provide blind and low vision individuals with media experiences that are equal in emotional depth, quality, and engagement to those of sighted audiences. The American Council of the Blind urges all media creators, streaming platforms, and content producers to adopt these guidelines, uphold excellence, and advance equity and inclusion in every accessible media offering.

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ACB Board of Publications Candidates Forum

Hear directly from the candidates vying for positions on the Board as they answer pre-submitted questions and engage with live questions from the audience.

Sponsored by ACB Board of Publications.

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Proposal 2025-01

Amend Bylaw 4, Section A to clarify the language pertaining to the notice of meeting requirements

Purpose: to reduce the required notice period for meetings and agendas from 15 days to 5 business days for both the ACB Board and the Membership.

Bylaw 4 Duties of the Officers:

Replace the 6th sentence of Section A, which currently reads:

Bylaw 4 Duties of the Officers: A. ... The president shall send each board member an agenda fifteen (15) days prior to any board meeting, except the post-conference and convention board meeting.

Proposed language for the sixth sentence reads:

Bylaw 4 Duties of the Officers: A. ... The president shall provide written notice of each board meeting to the Board of Directors and to all ACB Members not less than five (5) business days prior to each board meeting. This notice shall include the proposed agenda, information on how members can listen to the meeting, and a method for members to provide comments to the board on any agenda items prior to the meeting.

Bylaw 4A as amended reads: A. The president, with the approval of the Board of Directors, shall employ and supervise an executive director. The executive director shall be responsible for the selection, supervision, and dismissal of all employees of this organization (except the editor of The ACB Braille Forum) and shall also perform other duties and responsibilities prescribed in a written job description approved by the Board of Directors. The executive director, with the approval of the Board of Publications, shall employ an editor of The ACB Braille Forum. The editor of The ACB Braille Forum shall perform the duties and responsibilities prescribed in a written job description prepared and approved by the Board of Publications. Not less than sixty (60) days prior to the opening of the annual conference and convention, the president shall have the responsibility to appoint a qualified individual who is familiar with and has access to a current copy of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, to serve as Parliamentarian during that annual conference and convention. The president shall provide written notice of each board meeting to the Board of Directors and to all ACB Members not less than five (5) business days prior to each board meeting. This notice shall include the proposed agenda, information on how members can listen to the meeting, and a method for members to provide comments to the board on any agenda items prior to the meeting. The president may, with the advice and consent of the Board of Directors, appoint an Assistant Secretary and/or Assistant Treasurer. Such assistants may be paid for their services.

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RESOLUTION 2025-11

PRESERVATION OF THE NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE

Submitted by: DeAnn Elliott

Whereas, in the 2026 budget the Administration is proposing to eliminate the National Eye Institute (NEI), with its functions proposed to be folded into a larger neuroscience institute; and

Whereas, previous NEI initiatives have led to treatments for macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, inherited retinal diseases, and many other eye conditions that impact millions of Americans; and

Whereas, over 12.5 million Americans aged 40 years and older are blind or have low vision; and

Whereas, due to baby boomers aging into vision loss, this number is expected to double by 2050, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Big Data Project from VisionServe Alliance; and

Whereas, according to the Foundation Fighting Blindness, the NEI supports vision research through more than 2,000 research grants made to scientists at more than 150 medical centers and universities, and eliminating or reducing this vital research would have a devastating impact on the continued advancement of cutting-edge treatments;

Now, therefore, be it resolved by the American Council of the Blind, assembled in virtual convention this xx day of June, 2025, that this organization will advocate to preserve the independence of and full funding for the National Eye Institute.

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RESOLUTION 2025-09

EXPANSION OF AVAILABLE BRAILLE TITLES

submitted by: Library Users of America

WHEREAS, although the number of braille titles released annually has grown slightly, it is dramatically less than the number of audio titles released; and

Whereas, for a variety of reasons, it is far easier to produce and distribute braille titles than it has ever been; and,

Whereas, These reasons include but are not limited to: availability of digital titles, use of free NLS e-readers and other braille devices, and reliable braille translation systems.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the American council of the Blind in convention assembled virtually this XX day of June, 2025 that we join with Library Users of America to request that the National Library Service expedite the expansion of available braille titles beyond the limited numbers now available. and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NLS be requested to report back to ACB and Lua at the ACB Convention in 2026 on decisions made in response to this  resolution.

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