Astro enhances accessibility to content for the visually impaired with Dari Mata Turun Ke Hati

Astro has and continues to signal its intent of championing inclusivity. Past efforts have seen Astro collaborate with the Malaysian Association for the Blind during the month of Merdeka. The initiative brought Miss Nurin Amalin binti Ishak, a para athlete who has been blind since she was 10 years old to feel the braille of the Malaysian flag.

This enabled her to experience the flow of the flag, its story, colours, and elements. More importantly, it gave hope to the blind that they too can experience the full spirit of what a Merdeka celebration is.

With the launch of Dari Mata Turun Ke Hati, Astro has yet again collaborated with Talon Creative to launch a game-changing approach to experiences that amazing content can bring to all Malaysians.

This drama in particular; a story adapted from Japan and brought closer to local culture, tells a story of Iris Sofea, a visually impaired young woman and Jai, a gangster, portrayed respectively by up and coming Malaysian stars in Arabella Ellen and Mierul Aiman.

Dari Mata Turun Ke Hati is the first drama in Malaysia to introduce the Audio Description feature.

Malaysia is home to some of the best local content, featuring high production quality and impeccable storytelling. Unfortunately, not all Malaysians are able to enjoy these home-grown stories.

With over 400,000 Malaysians experiencing visual impairment, with 10-15% experiencing total sight loss, Astro and Talon saw an opportunity to reach out to the visually impaired community and provide them with an enhanced streaming experience with the groundbreaking first locally produced Audio Description track for a Malay Drama.

This track provided verbal descriptors of the show, interwoven with the dialogue, allowing visually impaired viewers to experience the narrative of the show and fully immerse themselves in the content.

Tai Kam Leong, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Astro said “As Malaysia’s leading media company, we believe that everyone deserves an opportunity to enjoy the magic of storytelling.

Leaning into our technological expertise, we wanted to make our content more inclusive and accessible to all viewers, especially those with visual impairments.

That’s why we’re excited to produce 480 minutes of the Audio Description track for Dari Mata Turun Ke Hati to enhance the viewing experience for our audience, thus contributing to a more equitable and inclusive entertainment industry”

Erman Basiron, Creative Director, Talon Creative noted “Working on this campaign for this show gave us insight into a point of view we never considered. How do the visually impaired experience life? How do they consume content and media? It wasn’t just about highlighting their plight; it was a real opportunity to give society a look into a completely different paradigm of life”.

This translated into the creation of social media posts that mimicked the visually impaired Iris Sofea’s experience, giving the audience a glimpse into her world, bringing the visually impaired community and general public closer together.

Dari Mata Turun ke Hati drove high social impact being the first Malaysian drama to feature an audio description track catering to the visually impaired community.

The drama gained more than 30 million impressions and 110 million views on TikTok. The drama was also the number 1 drama on sooka in its final week and placed in the top 10 on Astro Go/On Demand.

Stream all episodes of Dari Mata Turun Ke Hati on Astro GO and sooka.