Netflix has offered free access to high-quality documentaries to teachers for years. Now that schools are closed, Netflix has opened access to all.
Most of these videos have educational resources prepared for them, from short educational guides to full website. Links to these educational resources are embedded in the bracketed text following the title.
Regarding accessibility, at least some of these videos have closed captioning. Unfortunately, I was not able to access audio description within YouTube, and my search for how to do so led me to articles claiming that YouTube simply does not support audio description, even when the original video has it. If anyone does figure out how to make audio description work on posted YouTube videos, please let me know ASAP.
These videos are also available through a paid Netflix subscription. All of the documentaries except “Period. End of Sentence.” have English audio description available; “Period. End of Sentence.” Offers audio description, but only in the Hindi language. Each of the series has audio described episodes (I didn’t check every episode, but I’m guessing the if one is audio-described, they all are.)
You may access all of these free documentaries at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvahqwMqN4M0GRkZY8WkLZMb6Z-W7qbLA
Here is a list of videos available:
- Chasing Coral (Full-length documentary about coral in the seas) [Educational Resources for Chasing Coral]
- 13TH (Full-length documentary about the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution) [Educational Guide for 13TH]
- Knock Down The House (Full-length documentary about four women running for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018) [Educational Resources for Knock Down The House]
- Period. End of Sentence. (Short documentary detailing the stigma of menstruation in India and solutions women have found to increase their independence) [Educational Resources for Period. End of Sentence.]
- The White Helmets (Short documentary about volunteer rescue workers in Syria and Turkey in 2016) [Educational Guide for The White Helmets]
- Zion (Short documentary about Zion Clark, a wrestler born without legs) [Educational Guide for Zion]
- Our Planet (series narrated by Sir David Attenborough ) [Educational Resources for the Our Planet series] Episodes listed below:
- Planet Diversity
- Frozen Worlds
- Jungles
- Coastal Seas
- From Deserts to Grasslands
- High Seas
- Fresh Water
- Forests
- Explained (series) [Educational Guide for the Explained series not yet available] Episodes listed below:
- Music
- World’s Water Crisis
- Why Women Are Paid Less
- The Stock Market
- Cricket
- !
- Racial Wealth Gap
- Abstract: The Art of Design (series) [Educational Guide for the Abstract: The Art of Design series] Episodes listed below:
- Christoph Niemann: Illustration
- Tinker Hatfield: Footwear Design
- Es Devlin: Stage Design
- Bjarke Ingels: Architecture
- Ralph Gilles: Automotive Design
- Paula Scher: Graphic Design
- Platon: Photography
- Ilse Crawford: Interior Design
- Babies (series) [Educational Guide for the Babies series] Episodes listed below:
- Love
- Crawling
- First Words
- Sleep
- First Steps