About Us

We’re specialists. That’s the difference. Our writers complete a rigorous certification process and are highly skilled to meet the unique requirements of audio description. Our narrators are individually chosen with our client’s production specifications in mind, and we offer services in 18 different languages.

Research & development. Our advisory council led by expert consultants who themselves are blind, is vital to understanding the needs of blind and low vision consumers of visual media.

Our turnaround. A seamless production process delivers on budget and on time. Our technical expertise guarantees a top quality product, a commitment we’ve made to our clients since 2003.

Quality. Our clients and consumers of audio description recognize the quality of our work. We are a proud member of the Trusted Partner Network and the Netflix NP3 Program.

Our Team

Rhys is a white middle-aged man with a white beard and grey hair. He wears a collared shirt and dark framed glasses.

Rhys Lloyd

Studio Head

Prior to joining Descriptive Video Works, Rhys spent twelve years with Technicolor working in London, Los Angeles and Vancouver. He joined DVW for the opportunity to work alongside such a passionate group of technicians and artists, and is dedicated to bringing accessibility to media.

Melissa is a white woman in her mid-40s with very short, dark brown hair and a big smile. She’s wearing a black suit jacket.

Melissa Hope

Client Services Manager

Melissa fell in love with the art of audio description when an eye injury led her to binging audio described Netflix. Before joining DVW, Melissa managed a coworking space and an organic home delivery service.

Laura is a white woman in her 40s with long, dark brown wavy hair. She is wearing square, tortoiseshell glasses.

Laura Davies

Creative Services Manager

Laura began recording and mixing for DVW after working for a busy post-production studio in Toronto for 8 years, fresh out of the Radio and Television Arts program at Ryerson University, and is fully immersed in how the different parts of DVW work together to ensure the best possible experience for our audiences.

Kent is a white man in his 40's with short, dark blonde hair that is faded up on the sides. He has a nose ring and is wearing dark rimmed glasses.

Kent Stephany

Technical Services Manager

Kent is a dedicated and innovative professional with a long-standing commitment to the success of DVW, and a graduate from the Post Production Recording Arts program at The Art Institute. Armed with a passion for sound and a drive for excellence, he joined DVW in 2004, marking the start of a remarkable career spanning nearly two decades. Kent has continually pushed the boundaries of technical excellence and creativity in the field of audio production and audio description.

Chana is a woman in her early 60’s who identifies as both Anglo- and African-American. Her skin is medium beige. Her face is framed by chestnut brown locks which she wears partially pulled at the crown of her head, leaving a few strands around her face. She wears her signature terra cotta red colored lipstick.

Chana Smith-Balloffet

International Operations Manager

As a speaker of English, French, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish, Chana has extensive experience in localization, having managed dubbing and subtitling of film, TV, and streaming content for major Hollywood studios and service providers. As a woman, immigrant, and person with multi-racial and ethnic identities, Chana is passionate about equality of access to information, education, culture and entertainment.

With light make up on her bright brown eyes and full lips, Nefertiti smiles. She has smooth light brown skin and brown highlighted hair to her shoulders.

Nefertiti Matos Olivares

Workflow Manager, Quality & Inclusion

Nefertiti Matos Olivares is a blind bilingual Latina who is deeply committed to ensuring that culture is a shared space for all. As a professional voice talent who specializes in Audio Description Narration with an extensive background in Assistive Technology and museum accessibility, Nefertiti fervently advocates for disability inclusion and passionate about creating culturally competent audio description.

In his late 30s, Biplav is an Indian man with black hair, who typically wears a mustache and maintains a light stubble.

Biplav Sarangi

APAC Manager

Having worked for over a decade in the field of content localisation, Biplav currently serves as the APAC Manager for Audio Description Operations at Descriptive Video Works, passionately working to enhance accessibility for global audiences.

Jenna is a white woman in her early 30s with long, curly blue hair. She wears a pink V-neck t-shirt and square-framed aqua glasses. Her makeup is minimalistic, and a silver septum piercing hangs from her nose.

Jenna “Jennissary”

Live & Interactive Producer

A hobbyist turned professional, Jenna has been writing and performing Audio Description for many years. Previously, she worked in the pharmaceutical industry and US Army, but has always been passionate about accessible gaming. 

Photo of Kim.

Kimberly Manky

Communications Manager

Kimberly is a writer and communications expert who has written for Lonely Planet, Disney, ABCmouse.com, Nickelodeon, and Darling Magazine. Her education includes a MA in Creative Writing from the University of London, a BFA from the University of British Columbia, and a certificate in Contextual Theology from St. Mellitus College in London, UK.

Photo of Diane.

Diane Johnson

Founder & Senior Advisor

As a vocal and tireless advocate for people who are blind and visually-impaired, Diane founded Descriptive Video Works in 2003 with the objectives of breaking new ground and removing old barriers to make television, film and other visual media accessible to blind and visually-impaired viewers. Today, her company is recognized as the gold standard of quality in audio description and is known internationally.

Nate is a white man in his late 30's with receding brown hair and a brown beard. He is wearing black square framed glasses.

Nate Schwartz

Project Manager

Jamie is a white middle-aged man with short, brown hair, mixed with grey on the sides. He is clean shaven and wears dark framed glasses.

Jamie Murray

Project Manager

Ana is a Latina woman in her late 30s. She has short, dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. She wears a black sweater and natural-looking makeup with dark rosé lipstick.

Ana Galvao

Project Manager

Susan is a white woman with wavy, shoulder length dark brown hair pulled back on the sides. She is wearing a burgundy sweater.

Susan MacDonald

Project Manager

Alexia is a woman in her late 20’s who has an oval face and pale skin with faint freckles all over. She has blue eyes and arched eyebrows. Her face is framed by blue locks. She wears pink lipstick and pink blush to match.

Alexia Mayoral

Project Manager

Viola is a woman in her early 30’s with white skin speckled with freckles. Her wavy, light brown hair is swept to one side and her blue-grey eyes are highlighted by black eyeliner. She is wearing a dark blue patterned jumper and small rose-gold creoles with white hanging white pearls.

Viola Rudershausen

Project Manager

Francesca is a white woman in her late 20s with brown eyes and light brown curly hair that almost touches her shoulders. She wears a white T-shirt and gold-colored ring earrings. The piercing in her right eyebrow is also ring-shaped and gold-colored.

Francesca Clementi

Project Manager

Gabriela is a light-skinned, mixed-race, middle-aged Brazilian woman with short, curly dark brown hair. She is wearing a burgundy top and long gold earrings.

Gabriela Passos

Project Manager

Maddy is a white woman in her late twenties with shoulder-length blonde hair and bangs. She is smiling and wears a pale-yellow turtleneck sweater.

Maddy Fenton

Project Manager

Danna is a woman in her late 20’s. She is a Filipino with natural dark brown hair. Her hair is shoulder length which she wears on one side and the rest is pulled back. She wears a green square neck short sleeve dress with red and white vertical stripes. She has three piercings on the earlobes and one on the helix part of her right ear. She also wears braces on her teeth and pink lip gloss.

Danna Maraña

Client Services Assistant

Agata is a white woman in her early 40’s. She has an oval face and shoulder length, dark blond hair with a few gray strands, which she wears on one side. Her eyes are grayish-blueish. The piercing in her nose is small, round- shaped and blue. She wears no lipstick.

Agata Dąbrowska

Project Manager

A 31 year-old Filipina wearing a corporate attire with fair complexion, rounded face, dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, average nose, and thin lips.

Patricia Leonor Aquino Ramirez

Client Services Assistant

Advisory Council

Photo of Chancey.

Chancey Fleet

Advisory Council Member

A 2018-2019 Data & Society Fellow from Brooklyn, Chancey is a writer, organizer, and advocate that aims to advance public understanding and best practices in accessible technology.

Juan is a thin, bald man in his 40’s. He is wearing a blue T-shirt and is smiling at the camera.

Juan Alcazar

Advisory Council Member

Juan Alcazar is a legally blind filmmaker and content creator. In 2017 he began his disability journey on YouTube after openly discussing his sight loss on his channel. He is now an advocate for accessibility and hopes to spread the word about disability and blindness through the medium of film and video.

Ramya Amuthan is a 30-year old woman with medium-dark brown skin, dark eyes, and long, wavy black hair.

Ramya Amuthan

Advisory Council Member

Ramya Amuthan is the Cohost and Producer at Accessible Media Inc’s daily Entertainment and Lifestyle show, Kelly and Ramya. Her work involves meeting fascinating people, hearing their stories, and facilitating conversations that bring out the messages people want to tell. Consulting on accessibility and inclusion is something near and dear to Ramya; she brings in her lived experiences, ongoing learnings, and openness to collaboration to many spaces, including digital platforms, in-person events, description creation, artistic expressions, physical activities, and whatever else comes her way.

Shawn is a white woman in her 40s with shoulder-length brown hair. Smiling warmly, she wears a navy blue shirt and a small pendant on a thin chain.

Shawn Marsolais

Advisory Council Member

Shawn Marsolais is the Founder and Executive Director of Blind Beginnings and a registered clinical counsellor. Growing up with a visual impairment, she was personally impacted by the limited support that was available to families raising children who are blind or partially sighted. Shawn is passionate about supporting children who are blind or partially sighted to reach their full potential.

Amy is a white plus size woman with blonde hair and black frame glasses.

Dr. Amy Kavanagh

Advisory Council Member

Dr. Amy Kavanagh is a disability consultant, activist and campaigner who uses social media to share her lived experience navigating the world as a blind Londoner alongside her Guide Dog. Amy is committed to celebrating disability, mobility aids and encouraging others to learn about the social model of disability.

Brandon stands 6 feet tall and has black hair that is beginning to gray. His eyes are blue, and he sports a beard that makes him appear, to some, distinguished.

Brandon Cole

Advisory Council Member

Totally blind almost since birth, Brandon refers to himself primarily as an accessibility consultant, but he is also a blogger, podcaster, streamer, youtuber, voice actor, and most recently, audio description narrator. He has assisted in making AAA titles like The Last of Us Part 2 fully accessible to blind players everywhere. Brandon is on the front lines of blind accessibility in gaming and is confident this is only the beginning.

A professional shot of Ross from the chest up lightly smiling in a blue button up. He has styled light brown hair and a trimmed mustache.

Ross Minor

Advisory Council Member

Blinded at a young age, Ross Minor is an accessibility advocate and consultant with a specialty in digital media and video games. He has a Youtube channel where he posts about accessibility and a Twitch where he shows the world how accessibility enriches his gaming experience.

www.rossminor.com

Thomas Reid is a brown skin Black man with a smooth shaven bald head, full neat beard sprinkled with salt and pepper and wearing dark shades.

Thomas Reid

Advisory Council Member

As an Audio Description Narrator, Thomas has appeared on projects for Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, PBS, and more. He provides consultations for independent filmmakers, film festivals, co-facilitates workshops, and serves as moderator or panelist for discussions on audio description and content accessibility, and his podcast, Reid My Mind Radio, tells the stories of those impacted by all degrees of blindness and disability in general.

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Descriptive Video Works has always been excellent and a pleasure to work with, handling our requests efficiently. Allowing me to be worry-free as we moved through our project workflows to successful completion.

Garland Thompson Jr. — Global Events, Steve Jobs Theater, Apple

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Opening entertainment experiences to people who are blind and low vision through audio description. On time. On budget. On target.

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Descriptive Video Works
147 W 3rd Avenue
Vancouver, BC
V5Y 1E6

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1-866-818-3897