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Video description: As heard on TV

If you've never heard the term video description before, take a few moments, read this story, and familiarize yourself with it. If you do nothing else to remember the disabled during this week — the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Americans With Disabilities Act — you'll be glad you did this.

Video description, which helps the blind and visually impaired understand the unnarrated portions of movies and TV shows, is not just for the disabled. It's something you may find yourself using someday, much as you currently use wheelchair curbs when walking downtown.

Some of you already know what video description is, because your PBS affiliate carries it on some programs. (Turner Classic Movies also airs descriptions for about 50 of its films.) It isn't heard on the main audio channel, which also accounts for its low public recognition. But video description has been in use since the 1980s, and has matured to the point that it not only opens up a new worlds of culture and understanding to the visually impaired, but can enhance anyone's moviegoing or TV-watching experience.

Read my story in Friday's Kansas City Star

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"A House Divided" (8 p.m. Sunday, Showtime) casts light on a lesser-known side of Southern society in the Civil War era. It's based on the true story of Amanda America Dickson (Jennifer Beals), who was born of the union between her father David (Sam Waterston) and one of his slaves, Julia Lewis (LisaGay Hamilton).

Recent scholarship has discovered many more cases of interracial couplings and mixed-race children than were thought to exist in the antebellum South. Among them were the Dicksons, an intriguing clan who defied convention even as they strived to conform to social mores. Raised by her white grandmother, Amanda enjoyed a life of privilege and learning, even though her true lineage seemed to have been known to the neighbors. Meanwhile, her father often took his slave to social occasions, a move that appeared not to affect his status in the white community.

But in 1885, after David died, his will was contested by his white relatives, since he had left nearly everything to Amanda. The case became a cause celebre and was eventually heard by the Georgia Supreme Court.

Although all three leads give stirring performances in "A House Divided," Hamilton really crackles. She has a tart tongue (as viewers of "The Practice" already know) and it's well-deployed here. Hamilton seems to understand the fire that Julia carried within. It must have infuriated the slave to be raped by her master, yet Julia is shown converting her anger into hard work, keeping the plantation afloat during hard times and ensuring a better life for her illegitimate daughter.

Also this weekend, "Headliners & Legends" either profiles someone who's both — David Letterman — or someone who's neither — Kathie Lee Gifford. An NBC publicist is telling us one thing, TV Data another. Tune in MSNBC at 9 p.m. Sunday and find out for yourself.

On this date...

in 1986, Fox lowers the bar for what is considered "news" as several of the local stations owned by the network begin airing the lurid "A Current Affair" with host Maury Povich.

July 29: in 1974, Jim Hartz joins Barbara Walters as co-host of NBC's "Today Show," replacing the late Frank McGee. Ratings take a nosedive with the new team and when Barbara Walters quits the show in June 1976, Hartz is given the boot. The disastrous duo will ultimately be replaced by Jane Pauley and Tom Brokaw.

July 30: in 1996, a sassy new maid named Naomi is hired at Courtland Manor in Pine Valley on "All My Children." The role is played by struggling young actress Rosie O'Donnell, who apparently needs the ratings boost for her own daytime show. -- Tom Heald

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