Friday, May 17, 2024
Audio Describer Training - AD
Minnesota Association of Community Theatres- Audio Description
Location
- Accessible Entrance
- Accessible Restrooms
- Accessible Seating
- Wheelchair Accessible
Schedule and Tickets
Schedule: 05/17
The cost of the training, $80, includes a copy of current audio description guidelines and hands-on describing practice. For questions or more details, call Jon Skaalen, MACT board member, ay 612-819-0949 or mactfactor@icloud.com.
About the Show
May 16-17, 2024
Are you looking to learn a new way to (A) use your visual description skills, (B) enable people who are blind to enjoy public events more fully, and (C) earn money?
Investigate the world of Audio Description — at a training offered as part of a series of workshops aimed at making arts and culture more accessible to people with disabilities. This training and other workshops are offered by the Minnesota Association of Community Theatres with funding from the Metro Regional Arts Council.
Audio Description is creating vivid descriptions of key visual elements for people who are blind or have low vision, as well as for others who may benefit from description. There are audio description tracks on many films and TV shows, and theatres around the world have increasingly offered audio description to serve patrons who can finally see — through the describer’s words — sets, costumes, gestures, facial expressions, etc. The Twin Cities have offered more audio described shows than any other city, but new describers are needed due to retirements, new opportunities, and a nearly total absence of audio description in Greater Minnesota.
The two-day training (repeated May 18-19 at the Minnesota Fringe office) will look primarily at audio describing live events like plays, but will also address description at art galleries, museums, historical sites, film/video, parades, etc. It will cover guidelines and methods of description using portable equipment.
Trainer Celia Hughes is director of Art Spark Texas (formerly VSA Texas), which has been providing Audio Description services in Texas and across the country for over 20 years. She has presented and trained at the Kennedy Center’s annual LEAD (Leadership Exchange in Arts & Disability) conferences, serves on a national committee looking at audio description standards and certification, and recently audio described the eclipse by virtual broadcast from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Celia provided four describer trainings around Minnesota for VSA Minnesota more than 10 years ago.