How to turn off audio description on Netflix, Prime Video and your TV
Audio description is a narrator who describes what happens on screen between the lines of dialogue, made for blind and low-vision viewers. It usually comes as a separate audio track, so if you switched it on by accident, you turn it off by choosing the normal track again, in the app or on the TV.
This guide collects the steps from Netflix, Prime Video and Samsung’s own help pages.
Netflix
Start playing a title and open the controls: tap or click the screen on a phone, tablet or computer, or press up or down on a TV remote. Select Audio & Subtitles, choose Other if you do not see every option, and pick an audio track without Audio Description in its name.
Prime Video and Fire TV
During playback, press up on the remote and open Audio & Languages, or on the web and in the apps use the subtitles menu, and pick the track without the [Audio Description] tag. On a computer, the A key cycles through the audio tracks. Fire TV also has a general setting: Settings, Accessibility, Audio Descriptions, where you can switch it off for Prime Video; it is separate from the choice you make for one title.
Disney+
On Disney+, audio description is an extra audio track, chosen in the same place as the audio language. While a video plays, open the Audio and Subtitles settings in the upper right corner and pick the audio track that is not marked as audio description. Disney+ notes that availability depends on the title, language and country or region.
YouTube
On YouTube, audio description is a separate descriptive audio track that a creator uploads next to the original or dubbed audio. In the video player, open Settings, then Audio track, and choose the plain track instead of the descriptive one. The same menu also switches off an automatically dubbed language.
Samsung TV
Open Settings, All Settings, General & Privacy, called General on some older models, then Accessibility, and switch Audio Description off. Holding the Volume button on the remote for about two seconds opens the Accessibility Shortcuts, where Audio Description can also be switched off. Samsung notes that audio description only plays when the broadcast supports it.
If it keeps coming back
Check both places: the app’s audio track and the TV’s accessibility settings. If you watch through a cable, satellite or streaming box, the description may come from the box, so look in its own audio settings. A TV that reads its menus aloud is a different feature; see our guide on turning off a TV’s voice guide.
Making audio description yourself
If you publish videos, adding audio description makes them accessible to blind viewers. You can voice the descriptions with a calm narrator, free on any voice page for a line of 30 to 100 characters or offline with the free SuperClonica engine, and mix them into the gaps between dialogue.