Sometimes you can forget just how fortunate you are, and then we get an email like the one below. I've (Josh) have been enjoying Star Wars for years with all of my senses, then read this email which made me rethink the whole thing. Mark writes in with this request for the DVD versions of Star Wars movies for his brother:

I'm wondering if I might be able to get some help from somebody here. I'll quickly explain my situation... I have a younger brother who is blind. He is now 26 years old, and had gradually lost his site when he was a child. He is a big fan of all things Star Wars, and it really is one of the touchstones of our relationship.

Here's where I'm hoping you can help. There exists a technology known as DV, short for Descriptive Video. Basically it's a secondary audio program that contains a descriptive narrative track on VHS video so that vision impaired people can understand what is happening on screen. These narrators deftly relate the action on screen, while managing to not step on any dialogue the actors are saying. It's quite impressive. But it is sooooo rare. Most of the movies that have it are old. Very Old. 1930's old. There do exist a handful of more recent films, including Star Wars, but they are few and far between. The ones that are made are paid for by private funding, which may explain the odd choices, and varying quality of some of the tapes...

What I would like to do is get a contact name for somebody at LucasFilm, and encourage them to take the initiative (as they so often do) and set a trend of including a descriptive audio track in their DVD releases, in the hopes that it will lead to all the major films being released in this format. I can't explain how much this would mean to so many people. Please let me know if there is anyone I can contact. They don't post their contact info on the webpage, which I can understand.

Perhaps I could write a letter that theforce.net could forward to them on my behalf?

Consider it sent.