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Total Resource Guide:
Descriptive Video Service (DVS) is a national
service that makes Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television
programs, Hollywood movies on video, and other visual media accessible
to people who are blind or visually impaired. DVS provides narrated
descriptions of the key visual elements without interfering with
the audio or dialogue of a program or movie. The narration describes
visual elements such as actions, settings, body language and graphics.
DVS was launched nationally in 1990 by the WGBH Educational Foundation,
producer of many prime time public television programs and leader
in the development of accessible media.
A viewer must live within range of a PBS station
that carries DVS (80 percent of PBS stations carry DVS) and must
have a stereo TV or a stereo VCR that includes the Sound Audio Program
(SAP) feature, standard on most newer stereo televisions and video
cassette recorders. Inexpensive receivers that convert TV sets to
stereo with SAP also can be purchased. Viewers who subscribe to
cable should ask the cable company to "pass through" stereo
with SAP. For more information on DVS, go to http://www.wgbh.org/wgbh/access/dvs/dvsinfo.html
Motion Picture Access-Project
Here's how it works: The Rear Window® Captioning
System displays reversed captions on a light-emitting diode (LED)
text display, which is mounted at the rear of a theater. Deaf and
hard-of-hearing patrons use transparent acrylic panels attached
to their seats to reflect the captions so they appear superimposed
on the movie screen. The reflective panels are portable and adjustable,
enabling the caption user to sit anywhere in the theater. (Of course,
the captions must first be produced for each film.)
DVS Theatrical® delivers descriptive narration
via infrared or FM listening systems, enabling blind and visually
impaired moviegoers to hear descriptive narration on headsets without
disturbing other audience members. The narrative description includes
information about key visual elements that enhance the meaning of
a production (settings, scene changes, action, etc.).
These technologies have been available for several
years in specialty theaters, such as large-format movie theaters
and theme parks. Now they're available in some conventional movie
theaters. The best part about this dual system is that equipment
is already in place in some General Cinema theatres in Los Angeles
(Sherman Oaks), Chicago (Lombard), Seattle, and Atlanta.
Widespread proliferation of the new technologies
is expected to revolutionize the movie experience for the nation's
34 million people with hearing or vision loss. The production of
captioned films is expected to also greatly increase as movie distributors
and theater operators are made more aware of the demand for them
(and subsequent profit).
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