washingtonpost.com: Stars Lend Their Voices to The Blind
washingtonpost.com

Stars Lend Their Voices to The Blind

By Tracy L. Scott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 22, 2002; Page Y06

This year, the Frank Capra Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life"
features former president George H.W. Bush in a major role.

He cannot be seen, but he can be heard by viewers whose televisions come
equipped with the secondary audio program (SAP) option.

The new version of "It's a Wonderful Life," including Bush's narrative,
first aired on Dec. 7 and will repeat Tuesday at 8 p.m. on NBC.

The movie's video description, provided by TheatreVision, is available on a
separate track that allows blind and visually impaired viewers to hear a
description
of the action that takes place on-screen.

The secondary audio feature must be activated by the television's remote
device. Most newer sets come equipped with the technology, which often is
used
to add a secondary Spanish-language audio track to television programs as
well.

The described audio feature was introduced in 1985 by WGBH in Boston, the
PBS station that developed Descriptive Video Service (DVS), the first of its
kind.

According to Larry Goldberg, director of the National Center for Accessible
Media, several companies offer such a service, but each offers something
unique.

TheatreVision was the first to provide descriptive service in movie
theaters. It is currently available at select movie houses in Los Angeles
and Burbank,
Calif.

The Metropolitan Washington Ear, a local advocacy group for the blind, hopes
to persuade Loew's Theatres to add the TheatreVision option at its new
Georgetown
location, according to Washington Ear president and founder Margaret
Pfanstiehl.

TheatreVision often uses celebrities to provide narration. Actors who have
read for TheatreVision include Samuel L. Jackson, Pat Morita, Katharine
Hepburn,
Monty Hall, William Shatner and Angie Dickinson.

Helen Harris, president of RP (Retinitis Pigmentosa) International, the
developers of TheatreVision, said the celebrities are not paid for reading
the descriptions.
TheatreVision also uses volunteer writers.

"The directors are involved with it" too, said Harris, who called the stars'
participation a "humanitarian effort for the blind."

Using celebrities and people who portrayed characters in the movie to
describe the action adds a "different touch of excitement," she said.

However, most of the widely-used descriptive services prefer not to use
famous personalities.

"We do not believe in celebrity narrators. That calls much too much
attention to the narration," said Goldberg.

Instead, WGBH and the National Captioning Institute (NCI) in Vienna use
voice-over artists who are trained not to be intrusive.

Goldberg said DVS also tries to avoid judgments. "Instead of describing a
character as 'angry,' we might say, 'his face is red, and he's sweating
above
the brow,' " he said. "We let the listener make the call."

Joel Snyder of NCI said his company also provides closed-captioning for
people who are hard of hearing. "Producers can come to us for one-stop
shopping.
We provide closed-captioning for the deaf, sometimes for the same program,"
he said.

The Narrative Television Network, located in Tulsa, has been providing
descriptive audio since 1988. According to its president, Jim Stovall, the
company
has described "more hours of programming than anyone in the business."

Stovall attributes the company's success to reasonable prices and fast
turnaround.

The Narrative Television Network, which is founded, owned and operated by
blind or visually impaired individuals, has four full-time narrators.
Stovall,
who is blind, said it is important that the listener recognize the voice of
the person doing the describing and not confuse that narrator with one of
the
characters.

In addition to the four larger services, some smaller organizations describe
action for live theater and industrial tapes, Goldberg said.

Pfanstiehl, of Washington Ear, said her organization describes for live
theaters in the Washington area and trained those who describe performances
at the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Broadcasters and networks have as much to do with the availability of
descriptive audio as the groups that advocate and provide the service.

In addition to choosing which programs will offer the secondary track and
which providers to use, networks decide whether to use SAP for descriptive
audio
or for the Spanish-language alternative.

Although those offering the descriptions are all working toward the same
goal--making productions clearer for the blind--Goldberg said that there is
a sense
of competition among the audio-description providers.

Comparing other descriptive audio services with TheatreVision is like
"taking a Model T and comparing it to a Porsche," said Harris. "There are
other descriptive
services, but not with the TheatreVision attention to great script writing
and performance."

The companies compete for federal grants and for the opportunity to describe
for certain programs.

"NBC or CBS would take bids and look at the quality of the work," said
Goldberg. The networks pay for some of the cost of providing the descriptive
audio;
federal grants help to defray those costs, he said. Individual broadcasters
decide whether to provide and create the descriptive audio.

Although many networks voluntarily provide descriptive audio, the National
Association of Broadcasters (NAB) recently took part in a lawsuit to
overturn
federal mandates that required stations in the top 25 markets to provide an
average of four hours a week of the service.

The NAB did not respond to requests for interviews for this article.

The federal regulation was overturned in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit in November. However, the groups representing
the
blind and visually impaired say they have not noticed a decrease in the
number of stations and programs providing descriptive video, according to
sources
at the FCC.

"It's very sad [the courts] were allowed to overturn this. The FCC was
wonderful and wise to push this through" as far as it did, said Harris.

According to a CBS spokesperson, that network "will continue to add video
subscription to those shows we have been doing, as we continue to explore
the
best ways to meet the needs of those in our audience whose sight impairment
affect their ability to enjoy our programs."

Other networks have responded to the ruling in much the same way, but not
all offer the service on a regular basis (see list below).

There are approximately 6.3 million blind and visually impaired people
living in the United States, according to the National Health Interview
Survey conducted
by the Bureau of the Census in 1994-95. Information from the 2002 census is
not currently available, according to the American Foundation for the Blind.

In regard to establishing new federal mandates that require TV stations to
provide described video for the significant number of visually impaired
Americans,
Harris said it's "another fight to be fought."

Prime-Time Broadcast Shows Offering Video Description

Not many broadcast networks offer regular audio description of their
prime-time programs for blind or visually impaired viewers. There are none
at all on
NBC, UPN or the WB.

For a weekly list of shows available in descriptive video, log on to:
www.wash-ear.org/dailylogs.htm

Here's what's offered:

ABC

Big Picture Show

Walt Disney Presents

CBS

JAG

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Sunday Night Movie

Fox

Boston Public

That '70s Show

The Bernie Mac Show

The Simpsons

Malcolm in the Middle

PBS

American Experience

Masterpiece Theatre

Mystery!

Nature

NOVA

Scientific American Frontiers

Ken Burns series

© 2002 The Washington Post Company




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