Think Outside the Vox OCTOBER 2024 Newsletter

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THINK OUTSIDE THE VOX

October 2024 Newsletter

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Celebrating Blindness Awareness Month,

Think Outside the Vox is spotlighting Audio Description and culturally competent access work for and by the Blind and Low Vision community.

Group photo of Deaf, DeafBlind, hearing Vox members, and interpreter ushers in the alley near the stage door with Kristin Chenoweth, all smiling. For the full image description, click on the embedded Facebook link.

VOX advocates for and educates venues on the importance of ProTactile Interpreters for DeafBlind patrons, which has led to increased accessibility at cultural events. ProTactile Interpreters were utilized at the Open Door Theatre‘s production of The Wizard of Oz and the debut performance of The Queen of Versailles at Emerson Colonial Theatre. Voxers featured above: Rachel Berman-Kobylarz (DASL), Kaitlyn Mielke (Deaf Spotlight), Kerry Thompson (Silent Rhythms), Jess Meyer (ASL Interpreter), and Christopher and Aimee Robinson (ASL Interpreter/ProTactile-ASL Interpreter)

All images have links to the original social media posts embedded. All content on our socials have image descriptions, alt text, captions, descriptive transcripts and/or links to supportive access materials.

a purple background with white text and black background that reads: “ReidMyMindRadio presents: Flipping the Script on Audio Description: Time to Think Outside The Vox.” ... To access the full description, click on the embedded Instagram link

VOX made its podcast debut on Thomas Reid’s ReidMyMindRadio! In the Flipping the Script season finale, Sam and Christopher covered the bases of equitable access in theater spaces and the value of culturally competent AD, DASL work and more. Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or anywhere you get your podcasts, and access the transcript at ReidMyMind.com.

Thomas Reid

Audio Producer | Voice Over Talent | Audio Description Narrator Consultant & Advocate

Thomas Reid, a brown skin Black man with a clean-shaven bald head and full neat beard, smiles into the camera. He wears dark shades and a black and white checkered button up shirt

Thomas has been thinking critically about Audio Description since his early in theater experience in 2007. He’s been covering the topic on the podcast since 2015. Through his blind centered Flipping the Script on Audio Description series, Reid continues to explore the art by going beyond surface level topics and examining its implications on the community.

A plaque award with a cherry wood frame and a scallop shaped border has black print in various font types and sizes, with a sheet layer of raised braille on top. To access the full description, click on the embedded Facebook link

ACBADP Award

Think Outside the Vox is a 2024 winner of the Audio Description Project Awards! We are thrilled and honored to have received the Special Achievement in Performing Arts Award for our work in increasing Blind-Centered Culturally Competent Audio Description. We’d like to thank the American Council for the Blind and extend our appreciation to those involved in our AD cohorts, particularly Thomas Reid, Cheryl Green and Nefertiti Matos Olivares.

Black text reads ArtsBoston Calendar, with a green sticker icon with white text that reads home of BOS TIX

A year in the making! VOX partnered with ArtsBoston to respond to a call from the Deaf, Blind, DeafBlind, Neurodiverse and greater disability communities to sort events by Accessibility features on the ArtsBoston Calendar here!

Kerry Thompson, a DeafBlind woman, teaches a salsa lesson at the Embrace Memorial statue in Boston Common on a summer evening

VOX was awarded with a Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion grant from The Sudbury Foundation and a Festivals & Project grant from Massachusetts Cultural Council. In partnership with Kerry Thompson of Silent Rhythms, they will create training modules for Best Practices in DeafBlind Accommodations. These training materials will be open source, online and distributed to theaters, museums, dance companies and arts organizations. 

A collection of our grant funders logos

Thank you to our sustaining grant funders: 

Barr Foundation, Wagner Foundation, National Art Strategies, Massachusetts Cultural Council, The Lenny Zakim Fund, The Sudbury Foundation and Haymarket People’s Fund

What’s Next?

A photo of the AD team in the upper booth at The Calderwood. On the left, Mel Watkins, a Black woman who wears her hair wrapped in a floral scarf, dangly earrings...to access the full image description, click on the embedded
A Zoom screenshot of BIPOC, disabled, blind, Deaf, hearing and sighted AD trainees smiling and posing with hands

Calling all Blind and Low Vision creatives and access workers! Vox is partnering with Thomas Reid and Independent Access Artist Cheryl Green for its third Culturally Responsive AD Workshop, a four-part series that covers the core elements of live theater AD through discussion and mentorship. It is FREE and held on Zoom in Winter 2024 – dates TBA. Open to ALL actors, voice actors, writers, and anyone interested in this work – primarily those who identify as Blind/Low Vision, disabled, BIPOC, AAPI or other marginalized identities. Click here to secure your spot.

Culturally Responsive AD Workshop

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