In our modern age, technology has made it so that the visually impaired are able to partake in many of the same activities as anyone else. Text-to-speech programs, which narrate a website, make it easy to browse the web. There are even screen-readers that can “intelligently” interpret structures and frames online. But what about more private matters, such as watching porn? Recently, the non-profit organization Porn for the Blind (www.pornfortheblind.org) has been getting a lot of attention for its attempt to accommodate the visually impaired’s sex drives. The website describes itself as “a not-for-profit organization dedicated to producing audio descriptions of sample movie clips from adult web sites. This service is provided free of charge.” The simple layout consists of a white background with a list of links to mp3 sound clips, with names like “straightboysfucking.com” and “cumoverload.”

Here’s how the website works. You can “help out” by clicking on a link where you record your own sound clip. A simple program allows you to record your voice and directly upload it to the site. The instructions include a strict format, stating that the clip is a presentation from Porn for the Blind, and also the full URL where the porn preview can be found. They also ask that you use “only proper anatomical language (male, female, penis, vagina, breasts, etc.)” So no dirty talk.

One of the founders of the website claims, “We imagine that the visually impaired people benefit from this service in many of the same ways that non-visually impaired people benefit from the raw hard-core pornography that’s being described.” But he also admits that some users have asked for audio descriptions read by women in a “sexier voice.” The problem with this server is that the audio clips are heinously boring, and almost seem comical. The clips are read in monotonous tones, and provide only an objective narrative of the scene. To quote from one clip, “She unzips one of the boy’s pants and starts going down on him. Then they are naked… They are really genuinely enjoying themselves.” Do they really expect anyone to get hot and bothered by that?

While these descriptions may be useful for a visually impaired porn viewer who is wondering what the hell is going on amidst all the moaning, why not just cut to the chase and give the listeners an annotative descriptions accompanied with all the great sex scene noises? Another website, Alt Sex Stories Text Repository (www.asstr.org), also provides pornography for the visually impaired, except these audio clips are recorded almost as erotic plays. The mp3s on this site provide the same service as the “raw hard-core pornography” descriptions that the founder of Porn for the Blind was striving for. The site also provides textual descriptions that a text-to-speech program could interpret.

Unlike Porn for the Blind, ASSTR is not directly targeted at the visually impaired, and it doesn’t isolate them under any sort of handicap. Blind people’s sex drives are just as functional as anyone else’s, and they surely don’t need to be sheltered from the porn industry.

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