WHAT’S NEW

special achievEment in performing arts
Audio description projeCT

FEATURED: July 2024

Full descriptive Transcript here. Think Outside the Vox is a 2024 winner of the American Council of the Blind Audio Description Project Awards! We are thrilled and honored to have received the Special Achievement in Performing Arts. We thank the American Council for the Blind and extend our appreciation to those involved in our AD cohorts, and our trainers and colleagues Thomas Reid, Cheryl Green, and Nefertiti Matos Olivares. Full virtual ceremony and press release can be viewed at acb.org/2024-ADP-Awards.


The lenny zakim fund’s grantee partner spotlight

FEATURED: January 2025

Think Outside the Vox earned a feature article which spotlights the ongoing partnerships with Boston-based theaters and how our grants and recognitions contribute to the impact of our workshops, mentorship and access across the arts. VOX also received a 2025 unrestricted general operating support grant from TLZ. We are honored and grateful for their support. GoogleDoc version for screen readers here.


the prom: school edition – Open door theater

FEATURED: MARCH 2025

Think Outside the Vox is assisting Open Door Theater to once again bring Justice and Joy to the stage for this year’s production of THE PROM: School Edition. March 21-30. Tickets on sale now! Both weekends will have ASL interpretation, open captions, assistive listening devices and sensory-friendly/relaxed formats. The second weekend (March 28-30) will be all Audio Described as well.


Flipping the script on audio description:
Time to think outside the vox

FEATURED: October 2024

Think Outside the Vox closed out the 2024 season finale with its own episode on “Flipping the Script on Audio Description” for ReidMyMindRadio, hosted by Thomas Reid. On this episode, Sam Gould and Christopher Robinson describes the breakdown of VOX – how we got the name and what we stand for. Full episode with transcript is available at ReidMyMindRadio[dot]com. You can also listen to the 30-minute episode on Spotify, AppleMusic, and AmazonMusic. A captioned three-minute segment of the episode is available to view and share on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages.


AD performances – THE HUNTINGTON THEATER

ONGOING

Think Outside the Vox has partnered with The Huntington Theatre to lead Audio Description and American Sign Language performances for all shows this season. We aim to expand the pool of culturally competent and professional access providers by mentoring individuals and surveying the process and procedures of onboarding Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Blind access providers. Board member and Blind consultant Amber Pearcy is the Lead AD Coordinator for the Huntington’s 2024-2025 season. Previous performances include:
Nassim, featuring primary Audio Describer Mel Watkins and pre-show Audio Describer Mikey Rose.
Sojourners, featuringAudio Describers Dave Heard, Gamalia Pharms, and AD Consultant Vivian Kobusingye Birchall.
Use promo code ACCESSASL to access discounted seats in the ASL section. The next show is The Grove and the AD performance will be Saturday, March 8th at 2:00PM. Buy tickets here!


ASL performances – THE HUNTINGTON THEATER

ONGOING

Think Outside the Vox has partnered with The Huntington Theatre to lead Audio Description and American Sign Language performances for all shows this season. We aim to expand the pool of culturally competent and professional access providers by mentoring individuals and surveying the process and procedures of onboarding Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Blind access providers. Board member and veteran DASL Kristin Johnson is the Lead ASL Coordinator for the Huntington’s 2024-2025 season. Previous performances include:
Nassim, which had DASL Leon Jerfita and ASL interpreters Jess Meyer and Michael Sullivan, as well as Deaf Iranian actor, writer and DASL Ace Mahbaz to consult on multicultural storytelling and expression in Farsi, English, ASL and Iranian Sign Language.
Sojourners, which had DASL Kristin Johnson and ASL interpreters Christopher Robinson, Jessenia Kolaco and Morgan Beall, as well as Deaf artist and ASL Consultant Alexandria Wailes to present themes of homesickness, cultural belonging and the transition into Diaspora life.
Use promo code ACCESSASL to access discounted seats in the ASL section. The next show is The Triumph of Love and the ASL performance will be Friday, March 28th at 7:30PM. Buy tickets here!


ArtsBoston’S ALL ACCESS calendar

January 2025 – Calendar is live! Webinar recording coming soon.

Think Outside the Vox partnered with ArtsBoston to respond to a call from the Deaf, Blind, DeafBlind, Neurodiverse and greater disability communities to create and develop the ArtsBoston All Access Calendar, a free resources that allows users to search arts events and sort by Accessibility feature. Arts organizations and artists can use this Calendar as a free accessibility and marketing tool to promote and submit their events. Christopher Robinson, Think Outside the Vox, and Vox consultant Tanja Milojevic were included in The Boston Globe’s article “Why this new ArtsBoston Calendar feature is ‘a game changer‘”in December.
On January 15th, Vox co-hosted a virtual comprehensive tutorial on how to submit events and search by feature on the Calendar. Captioned and ASL interpreted webinar recordings to be posted on ArtsBoston’s website soon. A screen reader demonstration of how to search on the Calendar created by Tanja is available now.


Charles dickens’ A christmas carol
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company

December 2024

Think Outside The Vox is partnered with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company to prioritize accessibility and uplift Deaf, Blind and disabled access providers and audience in its productions and spaces. The VOX team served on all fronts for CSC’s Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol:
Ingrid O’Dell (Think Outside the Vox Access Coordinator) managed the American Sign Language team (Director of Artistic Sign Language Sabrina Dennison who led ASL Interpreters Christopher Robinson, Michael Herschberg, and Joshua Ayoub, as well as his children/CODAs Logan and Micaela for guest interpreting as Tiny Tim!) and the Audio Description team (pre-show and wayfinding describer Mikey Rose, primary/in-show describer Mel Watkins, and Blind Expert/AD Consultant Tanja Milojevic of GetBraille.com who printed braille programs, recorded audible cast bios, and consulted on the Tactile Tour), with tech and people support from Connor Riordan (Captions Operator/Script Editor with AccessTech) and Voxers on-site for AD and ASL performances (Samatha Gould and Olivia Reinebach). Assistive Listening Devices and large-print programs were also available and Vox was thrilled to receive real-time feedback from Deaf, Blind and disabled audience members. We are looking forward to the Shakespeare in the Park show in Summer 2025.


Sheherazade & borodin: Arabian nights – landmarks orchestra

the ASL team performing in front of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra at the Hatch Shell. All stand with expressions of hope and promise, all gesturing something different with one hand.

August 2024

A sweet summer night at the Hatch Shell – Boston Landmarks Orchestra rounded out their summer concert series with an ASL performance led by Think Outside The Vox and haptic suits provided by Not Impossible Labs. DASL Kristin Johnson and ASL team Leon Jerfita, Aidan Mark, Christopher Robinson and Aimee Robinson captured the music with visual-vernacular/ASL poetry and visual-manual orchestration.


LEAD Conference Seattle 2024

Vox team and Deaf community members take a selfie outside of the Paramount Theater in Seattle.

July 2024

Vox is Sleepless in Seattle The Kennedy Center’s Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability Conference. Kristin Johnson and Christopher Robinson co-led an interactive DASL workshop along with DASL Rhonda Cochran of Sound Theatre Company, unpacking the benefits and criteria of DASLs versus interpreters. See our Facebook posts for more.


A Winter’s Tale – Commonwealth Shakespeare Company

DASL Kristin and ASL team giving the preshow in ASL

July 2024

Think Outside The Vox is partnered with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company to prioritize accessibility for cast, crew and audience experience. Ingrid O’Dell delivered as Access Coordinator, assembling the DASL squad (featuring Kristin Johnson as Director of Artistic Sign Language and Christopher Robinson as one of three interpreters), recruiting Audio Describers Dave Heard and Cira Bagwell with AD consultant Amber Pearcy, and coordinating Open Captions with script editor/operator Connor Riordan and operator Olivia Reinebach. ASL Interpretation, Audio Description and a Touch Tour were offered for select performances. Think Outside the Vox provided access training for the 2024 CSC Apprentices on best practices for assisting patrons in the Boston Common. Charles G. Baldwin and the Mass Cultural Council’s Universal Participation (UP) Initiative made this partnership possible.


The Wizard of Oz – Open Door Theater

Jitterbugs dancing and Vox interpreting team signing, with captions projected them.
March 2024

Open Door Theater partnered with Think Outside the Vox to lead and embed accessibility for cast, crew and production team alike. Vox co-founders and key members are representing on multiple accounts: Co-founder Sam Gould produced the show and oversaw all access points, including the accessible preshow, visual cuing systems, open captions, sensory-friendly practices and inclusive language and descriptions. Ingrid O’Dell served as an access coordinator during the audition process and as an a stand-by ASL interpreter/sighted guide for DeafBlind patrons. Interpreting team: Jessenia Kolaco, Cia Mirrione, Aimee Robinson and Co-founder Christopher S. Robinson, led by Board member Kristin Johnson, DASL who coached Deaf lead Leon Jerfita (The Wizard/The Professor), led the ASL team and gave touch tours for Deaf and DeafBlind. Audio Description team: Board members David Heard and Amber Pearcy, plus Jen St. Pierre and Cira Bagwell from Vox’s second AD training cohort. ASL Handimations displayed during the show were created by Vox access tech lead, Connor Riordan. The Wizard of Oz got coverage from WBZTV!


DEAF EXPO: NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY

Black male and White female stand behind a vendor table draped in hues of purple, littered with packs of candy, a TV monitor with The VOX website displayed, several Starbucks mugs, and an obnoxiously large LEGO minifigure's storage unit head.

September 30, 2023

We brought the Black & Purple (and left the rain behind) on Saturday the 30th. Congratulations for a successful event , Northeastern University’s ASL Program!
Thanks also goes out to ArtsBoston for the outstanding beta testing work they are doing with the accessibility programming feature on the new calendar. Find out what’s next in Audio Description… Deaf Expo: Northeastern University Continued


EMBRACE SALSA

Deaf/Blind choreographer teaches Deaf/Blind student salsa in front of the Embrace Memorial while others learn around them.

August 31, 2023

In the true ideological intent of the social justice space that we were in, we held hands, and shimmied a wave of energy through our bodies. Deaf, Deafblind, Deaf disabled, neurotypical, neurodivergent, blind, chair users and afro indigenous people gathered to celebrate our humanity. We spoke of what is on the other side of the… Embrace Salsa Continued


VOX ON NPR

August 4, 2023

Check out Vox Interview with Sam Gould on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and hear Sam and Arun Rath model best practices and self describe… VOX on NPR Continued


MIKE TOBIA AWARD FOR COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP

Lynne Osborn awarding to Sam Gould with a banner above stating Mike Tobia Award for Community Leadership, Acton Boxborough United Way.

June 13, 2023

Congratulations to President Sam Gould Kriveshko recipient of the Acton Boxborough United Way Mike Tobia Award for Community Leadership June 13 2023. The Award in honor and memory of Mike Tobia, recognizes an outstanding Community Leader, dedicated to serving residents’ needs… Mike Tobia Award for Community Leadership Continued


ASK ME FAIR

Dr. Minkara in a chair and hijab with her guide cane on the floor in deep conversation.

May 1, 2023

The Ask Me Fair is a Living Library type of event, which was a Joint Venture with Open Door Theater, The Sargent Memorial Library and Danny’s Place. Children are invited to ask questions, listen to, and converse with awesome presenters from a wide range of backgrounds, who are happy to share their stories and life experiences. We invite everyone to come with an open heart and an open mind to… Ask Me Fair Continued