What does Audio Description do for a film?

This is a 90 second audio-only clip from the 1963 film, Charade, starring Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. This is what it is like to experience a film without any visual references just as someone who is blind or has low vision might experience it.

The set-up to this scene is that Audrey Hepburn’s character has returned to Paris to discover her husband has been murdered. She is left with just a meagre bag of her hus-band’s belongings – including a letter addressed, a one-way ticket to Venezuela and multiple passports all with her husband's photo. She learns her husband, along with a group of others, stole money intended for the French Resistance during World War 2 and these guys are now chasing her for the money which he went on to keep for himself. In this scene, Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant’s character, are following up a vague clue - an appointment the husband had at a particular time and day at the Jardins Chans Elisses, and they've just spotted one of the men who is their prime suspect….

Unless you’re familiar with the film, it’s likely this won't make a whole lot of sense. Henry Mancini's sublime music alone informs us that something significant is happening, but there is not enough clues through sound effects or speech to tell us what. A scene like this is pretty inaccessible if you are blind or have low vision.

Here’s that same scene with AD.