Posted on November 9, 2011 by John Waldo

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Makes Upcoming Season Fully Accessible

The nationally renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival is making its 2012 season fully accessible for people with hearing loss by scheduling 24 open-captioned performances and ten signed performances. Better yet, OSF will make unscheduled performances accessible upon request, provided that seats are still available in the captioned sections.

The captions are prepared in advance in-house, and are displayed in two or three line increments on a portable LED board. Seats are blocked out in areas from which the action on stage and the captions can be seen in the same line of sight. A live operatore advances the captions in synch with the pace of the performace, enabling us to read along and "hear" the dialogue with our eyes.

OSF is also clustering its captioned performances into five separate blocks. This was done in part at the request of the Oregon Communication Access Project (OR-CAP). We noted that because of OSF's remote location in the lovely town of Ashland, Oregon, patrons don't generally make multiple visits in a season. Rather, they go once or twice, stay for several days, and see a number of plays. The clustering arrangement makes it possible for those of us who need captioning to enjoy the festival in the same manner as our friends and families.

Tickets in the captioned section are available at a discount, but the patrons must specify that they want to have tickets in the captioned section. Otherwise, they might be given seats from which the captions are not readily visible. The tickets may be ordered over the telephone or online at boxoffice@osfashland.org.

As usual, OSF's 11-play schedule is a mix of Shakespeare, works by other well-known playwrights, and new works.

The cluster dates for captioned performances are:

March 29-31 for Romeo and Juliet, Animal Crackers, The White Snake and Seagull.

May 10-13 for Romeo and Juliet, Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella, Seagull, The White Snake and Troilus and Cressida.

July 26-29 for The Merry Wives of Windsor, Iowa, As You Like It, Party People, Henry V and Animal Crackers.

Sept. 7-9 for Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Iowa, As You Like It, All the Way and Henry V.

Oct. 18-20 for Party People, Troilus and Cressida, All the Way, Romeo and Juliet and Animal Crackers.

The clusters for sign-interpreted performances are:

April 26-30 for Animal Crackers, The White Snake and Romeo and Juliet.

July 12-14 for Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Iowa, and As You Like It.

Sept. 21-23 for Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella, All the Way and Party People.

OSF regularly draws patrons from throughout the country, and particularly from Oregon, Washington and California. Despite the economic downturns, 2010 and 2011 were two of OSF's most successful seasons -- well over 90% of all available tickets were sold, and some plays were sold out for their entire runs. For that reason, it is never too early to order tickets.

OSF has been an absolute joy to work with on improving access for people with hearing loss. For those of us who have abandoned live theater, this is a great opportunity to participate once again.

 

 

 

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Posted on November 1, 2011 by John Waldo

National organization recognizes value of access work

At its national convention last week, the Association of Late Deafened Adults (ALDA) highlighted the importance of access to public facilities by honoring me with the I. King Jordan award. The award, named for the first deaf president of Gallaudet University, was given in recognition of the work done to increase the availability of captioned entertainment, particularly at movie theaters.

In a sense, ALDA was honoring itself, and rightly so. ALDA was the organizational plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed in California against Cinemark theaters, America's third-largest theater chain. Along with Disability Rights Advocates, a public-interest law firm based in Berkeley, I represented ALDA in that case. The case was amicably resolved when Cinemark agreed to install and use captioning equipment at all of its first-run theaters in California.

After resolving the California case, Cinemark extended its commitment to full captioning nationwide. It uses a personal viewing device called CaptiView that is attached to a flexible goose-neck that fits into the cup-holder on the theater seat. The captions are transmitted wirelessly to the device and shown in lighted type. The devices are shielded so as not to disturb other viewers. Unlike the more familiar Rear Windows Captioning system, the CaptiView devices can be used equally well from any seat, and the captions are not interrupted when someone behind the viewer stands up.

At the ALDA convention, I received very favorable feedback from a number of people throughout the country that have experienced captioned movies with the CaptiView devices. Many of them said they had not been able to enjoy movies for years, but are thrilled to be able to join friends and family members at the theater.

After the Cinemark case had concluded, ALDA, DRA and I initiated conversations with AMC theaters, America's second-largest theater chain. AMC also agreed to provide full captioning capability in its first-run California theaters. We were able to sign that agreement at the convention. We understand that AMC also plans now to make captions available everywhere once its theaters are converted to digital projection.

Regal Cinemas, America's largest chain, also has committed to full captioning after digital conversion. Regal showed an open-captioned movie for ALDA conference attendees on the evening prior to the convention opening, and received thanks and recognition at the conference.

Earlier this year, the Civil Rights Section of the Washington State Bar presented me with this year's Distinguished Service Award. That was a welcome recognition that securing the rights and opportunities that federal and state disability laws extend to people with hearing loss is very much a part of the same civil-rights movement that has opened doors that may have been barred because of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or other characteristics that ought not be relevant.

None of those objectives could have been achieved without the support of organizations like ALDA, the Washington State Communication Access Project (Wash-CAP) and the Oregon Communication Access Project (OR-CAP). Their willingness to clearly and persistently articulate our needs has made it possible to enrich the lives of all of us that live with hearing loss.

 

 

 

 

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