BSCB Publishes Audio Description Guide Book

NEW AUDIO DESCRIPTION GUIDE PUBLISHED

GUIDEBOOK ENABLES PERFORMING ARTS ORGANIZATIONS TO PROVIDE EQUAL ACCESS FOR THE BLINDNESS COMMUNITY

MAKING THEATRE ACCESSIBLE: A GUIDE TO AUDIO DESCRIPTION IN THE PERFORMING ARTS, is a new publication of Cultural Access Consortium (CAC) and the Bay State Council of the Blind (BSCB). This guide, targeted to theaters and various performing arts organizations, is also a valuable advocacy tool for access coordinators, education and outreach personnel, and advocates in the blindness community. While it contains some resources specific to the New England audio description community, it will be a valuable resource for anyone in the United States or other countries looking to establish a new or enhance an existing audio description program.  Guides are now available for $6.00 per copy.

Audio description is the art of providing blind or visually impaired patrons with access to key visual elements of a live theatrical performance. An audio describer, located in a booth, reads from a prepared description script into a microphone. The description is then transmitted to blind and low vision patrons via a closed circuit FM or infrared sound system. Through the use of receivers and head sets provided by the theater, patrons can hear a description of what is happening onstage that is carefully inserted into the pauses of the performance dialogue at the same time that other audience members are seeing it.

The guide's contents include:
What Is Audio Description;
Why Audio-Describe Theatre from the perspective of a member of the blindness community, an audio describer, a theatre producer, and a regional theatre education and outreach director;
A Brief History of Audio Description;
outreach initiatives for Audio Description Education;
A Step-by-Step Program Plan which includes a chronological and categorical listing of process steps, fundraising, marketing, box office, and production elements;
Appendices including information resources, examples of program book inserts, signage, sample describer's contract;
a Glossary of Terms.

Contributing writers to MAKING THEATRE ACCESSIBLE are Judy Berk, Executive Director of Cultural Access Consortium; Kim Charlson, Acting Director at the Braille and Talking Book Library at the Perkins School for the Blind; Valerie Ching, Program Director of Cultural Access Consortium; and Andrea Doane, New England's leading performing arts audio describer.

MAKING THEATRE ACCESSIBLE: A GUIDE TO AUDIO DESCRIPTION IN THE PERFORMING ARTS sells for $6.00 per copy including shipping and handling. Braille, large print and a computer diskette version are also available for the same price. Checks or purchase orders are accepted and should be payable to the Bay State Council of the Blind.

The guide may be ordered from Kim Charlson of the Bay State Council of the Blind, 57 Grandview Avenue, Watertown, MA 02472-1634. Call (617) 926-9198/Voice or 

The publishers of the guide, Cultural Access Consortium and the Bay State Council of the Blind, are committed to cultural access for all people with disabilities. Cultural Access Consortium works in cooperation with cultural organizations to create accessible programming. The Bay State Council of the Blind is a leading consumer organization that advocates for audio description and overall arts access throughout Massachusetts.