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 ************************************************************ * ACB-L is maintained and brought to you as a service * * of the American Council of the Blind. * -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [log in to unmask] For additional commands, e-mail: [log in to unmask]