[accessibleimage] audio description, museums, exhibition

Barre Montpelier Times Argus, Vermont USA
Sunday, April 23, 2006

Blind welcome high-tech 'talking picture'

By Peter Hirschfeld Staff Writer 

MONTPELIER - About 50 moviegoers filed into the Capitol Theatre on Saturday 
morning for a premiere of a different kind.

For the first time in Vermont, blind and visually impaired residents were able 
to enjoy a movie without the bothersome practice of having a sighted companion 
whispering on-screen action into their ear.

"It was excellent," Joy Betz said of the "audio-description" technology that 
provides a running narrative to blind people via a wireless earpiece.

The technology has been around for five years, according to Mike Richman of the 
Vermont Council of the Blind, but was until Saturday almost exclusively 
contained to major metropolitan areas. The Council of the Blind, not to be 
confused with the Vermont Association for the Blind, is made up of blind 
Vermonters seeking to improve the lives of their peers. The nonprofit won 
grants and raised money to have the approximately $6,000 system installed at 
the Capitol Theatre.

"We're an organization working to help ourselves, and this is something we think is 
of real value to blind people," Richman said.

Saturday's matinee featured a new release, "The Sentinel," a taut political 
thriller starring Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland. The blind guests, their sighted 
companions and a handful of guide dogs nearly filled the house. The technology offered 
succinct descriptions of on-screen action.

Scripted dialogue tells only part of the story. When Douglas' character lies silently on his bed 
pondering one of the movie's numerous plot twists, audio description tells us that "he stares 
pensively, one arm bent behind his head." As a Secret Service agent pursues his target, the 
listener is told he's "wearing a determined scowl." The narrative by an anonymous male 
voice includes descriptions of car chases, scenery and love scenes.

"I loved it. It's wonderful. As a blind person, it's a way for me to understand and 
enjoy what's happening on the screen," said one moviegoer.

The technology isn't entirely new to Vermont. Theater companies and venues 
including Lost Nation Theater, the Barre Players, FlynnSpace and St. Michael's 
College have offered audio-description presentations of plays. Such 
performances are generally one-time events, however, where all blind people 
must attend the same showing.

Capitol Theatre owner Fred Bashara says about 75 percent of movies now come 
with studio-produced audio description, DVDs included. He just pops the disc 
into the system and the narrative plays automatically. He said he plans to have 
at least one audio-description movie showing all the time at his theater.

Betz, a Middlebury resident, was one of the last to leave the theater Saturday. Asked why, she said 
she was experiencing movie credits for the first time in more than a decade."It was the Isley 
Brothers!" she said, referring to a song in the movie. "I don't see this as becoming an 
integrated part of the sighted world. I see it as becoming an integrated part of the human 
race."

Betz plans to attend future screenings of other movies, and Richman said he has begun an effort to get systems installed in Burlington theaters. 


http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060423/NEWS/604230359/1003/EDUCATION05



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Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio
Sunday, April 23, 2006

Blind artists' work at Weathervane

By Kerry Clawson, staff writer

Exhibit tied to `Wait Until Dark' includes quilts, sculpture, baskets

The darkness may be blind woman Susy Hendrix's greatest ally in the thriller 
Wait Until Dark, which opens for previews Wednesday at Weathervane Community 
Playhouse.

As the main character plays a cat-and-mouse game with criminals who have 
invaded her apartment, the audience is sure to get a chilling taste of what 
it's like to be in the dark.

In conjunction with the show, Weathervane curator Marci Paolucci has created an 
arts and crafts exhibit featuring work by blind clients from Vision Support 
Services of Akron and the Cleveland Sight Center.

Crafts classes at Vision Support Services include sewing/quilting, leather 
work, woodworking, macrame, rug hooking, knitting and beadwork. VSS crafts 
displayed at Weathervane are group projects by clients at the Akron agency.

Paolucci says the most touching works are ``quillows'' -- small quilts that 
fold up into their own carrying cases to become pillows. Vision Support 
Services donates quillows to children at Summit County Children Services 
through the Wrapped in Love Program.

Fine art featured in the Weathervane exhibit includes sculpture by Chapelle 
Letman, who works at the Cleveland Sight Center and with Cleveland Institute of 
Art sculpting instructor Kim Bissett. This will be the first time sculpture has 
been displayed in the Weathervane gallery.

Other pieces from Cleveland Sight Center clients include a large leather bag by 
Vietnam veteran Terry Kebbel, which is designed to hold a Braille book; Linda 
Hoffman's small ceramic flowers; Joe Crauthamel's baskets made from clothesline 
and raffia; and 86-year-old Rose Dicicco's crocheted animals.

Original artwork done by sighted graduate students from the Cleveland Institute 
of Art for the annual report of the Cleveland Sight Center also will be 
featured. The pieces illustrate aspects of being blind.

A huge, textural piece that includes Braille -- on display for many years at 
the Cleveland Sight Center for the blind clients' enjoyment -- also will be 
featured at Weathervane.

``It has been a very moving experience for me to meet these people,'' Paolucci 
said of the blind artists. ``They have such a positive attitude about life, 
despite their limitations. The skill levels vary, but I (as a sighted person) 
would not be able to make any of the things that they have.''

In addition, clients from both the Cleveland Sight Center and Vision Support 
Services will be the first to use Weathervane's audio-described service. 
Anaudio-described performance for the visually impaired will be offered 2:30 
p.m. May 7. (An American Sign Language-interpreted performance for the 
hearing-impaired also will be offered at 2:30 p.m. May 14).

Weathervane volunteers received training in audio description last summer, but 
the service hasn't been used until now.

Here's more interesting news tied to the show: Susan Lucier, who plays the 
blind Susy Hendrix in the production, has worked hard to make her role as a 
blind woman believable by attending the Cleveland Sight Center's Personal 
Adjustment Training (PAT) Program, which teaches daily living skills to those 
who have recently lost their vision. After observing the clients with their 
blind instructors, Lucier was blindfolded and worked with an orientation and 
mobility instructor on walking up and down stairs, using an elevator, and 
moving around the building.

For more information on Wait Until Dark, call 330-836-2626.

Theater writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or by e-mail at kclawson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 


http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/living/14404144.htm



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Miami Herald, Florida
Sunday, April 23, 2006

Officials respond to (Museum of Art) suit with action, promises

By SARA OLKON solkon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After disabled visitors to the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale filed suit over 
access to the Tut show, some accommodations were made immediately -- and more 
are planned.

As the King Tut exhibit ends its four-month stay in Fort Lauderdale, at least 
one controversy continues: whether the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale can 
adequately accommodate blind, deaf and physically disabled patrons.

A federal civil lawsuit filed in February accused the museum of violating the 
Americans With Disabilities Act, alleging that handicapped visitors faced 
inaccessible bathrooms, long waits for the elevator and an audio tour that only 
covered a portion of the exhibit.

''It really was disappointing when I visited the show,'' said a former ADA 
consultant for Pro Player Stadium, Fred Shotz, a Fort Lauderdale resident who 
is in a wheelchair.

He described how it was hard to see over the heads of visitors who were vying 
with him for a look at the treasures.

`A CIVIL RIGHTS LAW'

''It's not our job to hassle with other patrons so that we can see an 
exhibit,'' Shotz said. ``The ADA is a civil rights law, not a building code.''

In response to the lawsuit, museum officials met with advocates for the 
disabled and made some immediate accommodations, but negotiations over 
long-range improvements are still ongoing.

Shotz, a consultant for the plaintiffs, wants to see the museum set high 
standards for layout, design and signage.

On the wish-list: A uni-sex restroom that is fully wheelchair-accessible and 
''touchable'' displays -- replicas of artifacts that blind people can touch to 
better experience art and culture exhibitions.

'The question must be, `How good is the experience?' -- not just ''Can [the 
handicapped] fit in the door?'' Shotz said.

Joshua Entin, a Miami attorney who filed the suit on behalf of All Disabled 
Americans, an Indiana-based nonprofit group, said the fact Tut was leaving in 
this month forced advocates to focus on handicapped accessibility at future 
locations.

The group sued the museum and the National Geographic Society and Arts and 
Exhibitions International of Aurora, Ohio -- organizers of Tutankhamen and the 
Golden Age of the Pharaohs, charging its popular exhibit violated the Americans 
With Disabilities Act of 1990.

''The biggest problem we had was that we were confronted with the limited 
period of time,'' Entin said.

CHANGES MADE

Robert Fine, an attorney for the museum, said within a week of the Feb. 6 
lawsuit, staff made changes to the Tut exhibit, included allowing service 
animals into the exhibit, designing a guide book with large type for the 
visually impaired and expanding guiding tours for the blind.

Fine declined to discuss details long-range improvements but said the museum 
was eager to provide a good experience for all visitors.

Earlier this year, Director Irvin Lippman told The Miami Herald the museum 
complied with ADA regulations when it was built in 1986. He said the museum and 
ADA officials discussed upgrades that are scheduled for the summer, including 
automatic front doors and another ADA-compliant bathroom stall.

''All that we want is to have the same access,'' said Deborah Ryan, a legally 
blind resident of Pembroke Pines. ``We are just like anybody else.''


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/14401499.htm


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