Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability - accessibility

Bringing Better Access to the Global Museum

Emily Beitiks — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 18:25:33 +0000

Thanks to the generous support of donors Stanley Yarnell and Victor Rowley, the Global Museum at SF State now has its first audio description guide for the blind/vision impaired! Director of the Global Museum Paige Bardolph worked with the Longmore Institute to develop this helpful resource. Additional description written by Longmore Student Fellow Maxfield Hunt and recordings by Longmore Fellows Maxfield Hunt and Sam Hengesbach. We hope you enjoy!

To plan your visit to SF State's Global Museum, visit their website.

Click to access the guide without background music and with background music.

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audio description

blind people

museums

access

accessibility

Ending the Cycle of Low Expectations

Visitor — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 21:34:51 +0000

By: Danny Thomas Vang

"A school counselor administered the Braille test to me at a different time and place than everyone else so that I could have more time. However, it was not even graded until after the winners had already been announced, and my parents asked how I had done. I can only assume that everyone thought I would not have been competitive. But after it was finally graded, I actually came in second."

How teachers and schools interact with students serves as a major indicator of future success; a negative outlook will stifle potential but a positive outlook can promote innovation and bring out the best in a student. Nicole Torcolini, a blind woman who is a computer programmer in the accessibility department at Google, spoke about how engagement with work readiness programs that outreach to people with disabilities can bridge the gap between a lackluster supportive environment for the disability community and tech relevant careers. She is a proud Stanford graduate who loves to figure out how objects and items operate.

As shown by the opening quotation from Torcolini, low societal expectations of people with disabilities can limit students with disabilities trying to carve out a path in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Like Torcolini, many of the other interviewees we spoke with remembered being discouraged from STEM fields – labs tended to be inaccessible and chemistry and math made for more challenging translations to braille.

However, Torcolini was able to break this cycle of low expectations and pursue her dreams because of her supportive family as well as several programs aimed to support people with disabilities pursuing careers in tech: Youth Employment Solutions (YES); Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology (DO-IT); and camp sessions held by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB).

Torcolini expressed how the employment readiness programs gave her the chance to practice mock interviews, learn more about tech, engage in volunteer jobs, network with people in the field, and create relationships with mentors. She argues that when hosting programs to encourage people to pursue a career in tech, employers should “reserve spots for people with disabilities or reach out to the community to find people to participate in existing programs” to ensure that diverse talent is brought to the workforce. These programs will allow students with disabilities to decide for themselves whether tech is the correct path for them.

The benefits of these programs aren’t just for people with disabilities. Torcolini points out that “There is a misconception that if you have a disability, you cannot work and are going to cost the company a lot of money. But people with disabilities contribute a lot of good ideas and perspectives to companies. Even if they need equipment, people with disabilities still work and can be productive and an asset to the company.”

Torcolini demonstrates the need for people with disabilities in tech in her current role at Google, where she knows she’s making a difference. She explains, “Most people who work on accessibility have never used a screen reader before. If they have, they have played with it. But not actually used it. By hiring me, they got someone who uses a screen reader and knows accessibility problems.”

To learn more about the contributions and perspectives of people with disabilities working in tech, watch our webinar (with audio description and captioning): https://longmoreinstitute.wordpress.com/2017/08/23/beyond-diversity-101-learning-from-the-perspectives-of-people-with-disabilities-in-tech-w-webinar-video/

Read more from our series on disability as #diversityintech:

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People with Disabilities in Tech

STEM

technology

Youth Employment Services

There’s Always Something to be Done: Liz Henry on Being Disabled in Tech

Visitor — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 23:43:39 +0000

By: Asa Gordon Liz Henry, Release Manager at Mozilla

Liz is currently the release manager for Mozilla, and has worked in two eras of tech: the 1990s and the mid-2000s to the present. She learned her computer skills from tinkering with computers from a young age, and having the freedom to experiment. In addition to her work in open source software, Liz is a blogger, writer and translator, and is involved in hackerspace projects. Liz deals with mobility impairments, and chronic pain from those impairments, that have a significant effect on how she can work.

The structure of Liz’s work at Mozilla has many benefits for her because of her mobility impairments. Instead of working on a traditional hourly schedule, she has longer timeframes, like six weeks to work on a project. This means that even if she is not productive over a specific hour or even a day, she is very productive over the course of those six weeks. In addition to this, Liz often works remotely with a distributed team who are in many different time zones around the world. It is not important that everyone be working at the same time. It’s more important that communication is strong, persistent, and frequent. If she has a flare-up and is unable to leave the house she still has the possibility of getting work done. She often thinks, as she is working from bed, that this job is perfect for people with mobility issues.

In addition, the fact that her physical condition can change at a moment’s notice means that she is very good at contingency planning. And since software release, as she describes it, can be “a constant disaster,” this skill is very helpful in her workplace. In her opinion, anyone with a disability who has managed their own healthcare competently, with all the medical, insurance, and government bureaucracies, has many skills needed in software project management - tracking a complex process and coordinating work across several teams.

Liz’s relationship with her work in tech has changed over the course of her time working in it. In the ‘90s she was much more uncertain about how people would treat her and her disability. She would often fake being able-bodied for a job interview, scoping out the location days beforehand to see how she could get through it with minimal signs of having a disability, minimizing walking distance. Then when on the job, she would openly use her mobility aids such as cane, crutches, or wheelchair. She worried that if possible employers saw her disability first, they would think she was too unreliable or would be out on sick leave too often. Liz describes this period as, “struggling to be as badass as possible; to be super tough and independent and hide any difficulties. And then I would have that moment where I would go oh no, I am going out on medical leave.” Interestingly, she often got more rude (and illegal) assumptions and questions about her gender, like whether she would get pregnant, than about her disability in this period.

In contrast, Liz has found that now things are more open around disability, although there are still some issues. In general, Liz finds that the places she works at now are more welcoming and upfront about their healthcare policies. She also is more upfront about her needs, partially because she has openly blogged about it, so people are more likely to have come across the information. She also relies on her wheelchair or scooter for mobility, which you can’t exactly hide. She finds that her team often acknowledges the need for skills like contingency planning as well nowadays. Despite this general atmosphere of acceptance, Liz often finds herself the only visibly disabled person or wheelchair user at work. Even at the yearly Mozilla conference, which brings together around 1000 people from the company, she has been the only wheelchair user for many years.

Liz has also found that companies and event organizers could improve their work around accessibility. Like many disabled people, being an unpaid disability consultant (and general diversity since she is also a woman) is, “my extra job, right?” She feels particularly strongly about event accessibility. Many times, a conference will claim they are accessible when they don’t have the structure to make the supposedly accessible spaces as easily usable as the non-accessible parts for able-bodied people. Some examples include having to hunt down the manager with the keys to the freight elevator and the time when Liz had to crawl on stage to give a talk. On this she says, “OK, I have to crawl on stage in front of two thousand people…I can do it, and I did do it, but it was not the frame of mind I wanted to be in, i.e. fury…when I’m on stage giving a talk.” Liz is much more convinced by an event’s or company’s effort when they have detailed accessibility information that is easy to find by default.

Many times, while waiting for a freight elevator or hotel lift to be unlocked, the people Liz are waiting with are mothers with double-wide strollers or an elderly person with a cane. She is also frequently approached by people asking for advice on mobility aids, or even where the nursing room is, because her mobility aids mean she is in a marked state. Because of this, Liz feels it is important to seek solidarity with unexpected groups who can also benefit from disability accommodations. Although it can feel devaluing, as if disabled people aren’t truly the important ones, it is ultimately helpful in getting everyone the services they need. She is honored when people ask her questions like the ones above, because it tells her that those people recognize that solidarity.

Unfortunately, Liz’s marked state doesn’t always produce positive reactions. Since her physical condition changes, she doesn’t fit the common stereotype of the paralyzed wheelchair user. Thus, she will get rude comments like, “what’s your deal, I saw your legs move!” One particularly egregious example of this is when a woman in HR gave her and a chronically ill coworker a “heartfelt speech” about how she would kill herself if she had a disability, since she wouldn’t want to be a burden on her family. When Liz asked if she should kill herself, since she had similar problems, the woman replied that Liz shouldn’t because she has great upper arm strength. Liz says, “And I was like, oh is that the barrier? If I don’t have upper arm strength I should just off myself?” However, Liz has also had significant positive experiences because of her marked state. When Noisebridge, a hackerspace Liz is involved in, was moving spaces she brought up that they should keep wheelchair accessibility in mind. They did, and to this day maintain that accessibility in multiple ways. She says that despite her visibly being around, they probably would not have considered accessibility if she had not mentioned it. Other wheelchair users have benefitted from the constant attention to accessibility at Bay Area hackerspaces like Noisebridge, Sudo Room, and Double Union.

Liz has always been attracted to hackerspaces and open source software for the ideals of the movement. In theory, it is open to anyone, although in practice the same oppressive dynamics as elsewhere can apply. She believes that people and companies who force customers into exclusive, expensive deals are “super evil” whether they are a tech company or a wheelchair manufacturer. Liz thinks Wikipedia, the Internet Archive, Mozilla, and similar organizations are “awesome”, and says that although they can be anarchic and chaotic, the rules for helping exist, “you just have to figure out which part of it you care about.” She also says that in that chaos, “there’s always something to be done.” Volunteering for open source projects can be a good way for people with disabilities to test the waters of the industry, and is a great pathway to get hired.

Students for Access cares about making the tech industry accessible and available to people with disabilities by default, so that others don’t have to be the only disabled person they can find in their workplace. We thank Liz for opening up about her experience and perspective in the tech industry, so that others may learn from it. Read more from our Disability in Tech series here:

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People with Disabilities in Tech

technology

The Glass Elevator: Chris Schlechty’s Path through Tech

Visitor — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 22:07:36 +0000

Chris Schlechty, a Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft, makes his story of breaking into tech as a person with a disability sound rather easy. He visited the Microsoft campus as a student at a nearby high school, and there he learned about the “DO-IT program” (Disability Opportunities Internetworking Technology), run by the University of Washington, which helps people with disabilities secure careers in STEM. By his senior year of high school, he was already a participant with DO-IT and an intern at Microsoft. When he graduated college, he had an offer to come back to Microsoft full time and has remained with the company ever since.

His disability may, in fact, have given him a head start on his career success. He shared, “I’ve had a lot more personal experience with time management and planning than other people have. Being a wheelchair user, I have a lot of experience planning logistics, thinking how I’m going to get from point A to B, so it’s effectively a self-managing perspective. Doing extra planning, figuring out the schedules - it kinda blends into project development and being a manager of people. You already have a subset of those skills.”

At Microsoft, where he serves as his team’s accessibility expert, he has felt accepted and welcomed from day one. His accommodations as a wheelchair rider, namely a well-organized office and an accessible desk, have always been met, and he remarks that his accommodations are treated no differently than other nondisabled team members’ needs, like working from home or being able to leave at a set time to pick up their kids.

It’s outside his place of employment where he sometimes encounters negative perceptions of disability. “People always assume that since I’m in a wheelchair and young, people think I’m not working, living at home, and then they find out that ‘You work at Microsoft? Really?,’ that initial shock that you’re defying what they expected.”

While Chris’s path into tech was straightforward, the path forward for his career is murkier due to “the glass elevator,” (think “glass ceiling,” but a barrier that is more disability-specific). “You can only get so high up before you risk losing your benefits,” Chris explains, “There are a lot of strategies but it’s really hard to navigate, it’s a huge pain… I crossed the threshold and now rely on family for personal care which I know is not a long-term solution and I’m not entirely sure how I’ll navigate that moving forward.”

While the glass elevator is a problem in all employment positions, it’s particularly likely in the tech sector today. Chris added, “The healthcare is great, but you have to be able to live and do stuff other than just going to the doctor. It’s difficult because a lot of the tech jobs are in really expensive areas, so it’s the high cost of housing, and you’d be paying for at least two added personal care assistants. There’s so many extra expenses when you have to rely on other people.”

Chris’s story raises an important point that’s often forgotten when we discuss the need for more diversity in tech. Getting people like Chris, who has clearly been an asset to the company, to work in tech isn’t just about adding a disability page to a company’s website or asking recruiters to strive for more disability hires. It involves opening up the paths for disabled people in hiring, retention, and development, and sometimes, that might involve supporting social changes that go beyond the workplace.

Interested in more on disability in tech? You can watch our webinar “Beyond Diversity 101: Learning from the Perspectives of People with Disabilities in Tech” now (with captioning and audio description).

Read more from our Disability in Tech series here:

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People with Disabilities in Tech

technology

the glass elevator

University of Washington

Russia Recap: Bringing Superfest to Volga Encounters Festival

Visitor — Thu, 25 May 2017 19:02:33 +0000

By: Emily Beitiks

When I received the invitation from the Eurasia Foundation to visit Russia and participate in their Social Expertise Exchange (SEE) Program, which has a disability initiative underway, I jumped at the opportunity to learn what is happening on the ground for disability issues. As coordinator for Superfest International Disability Film Festival, which always strives to feature an array of international films, getting to travel abroad and learn about disability in a different national context seemed like an important enough experience to justify the stress of being out of the office nine days, and even more challenging, time away from my two young children and husband.

After a 14-hour flight and a few hours of sleep in a hotel, I headed to the lobby, excited to begin my trip. In addition to four staff people from the Eurasia Foundation’s SEE program, I met four high schoolers and their teacher, all from Geneva, Illinois with no background in disability, who had won SEE’s “30 seconds to Russia” video contest. The students’ trip was paired with mine, as we were all to attend the Volga Encounters Festival in Cheboksary along with 400 Russian youths interested in filmmaking and journalism. While the students were invited to attend as participants, I was there to host a “master class” on disability in film, as well as an evening screening of Superfest’s past films.

But before heading to Cheboksary, we had two packed days in Moscow.

We visited the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences and met professor Alexander Solovyev, who studies the lack of job opportunities for people with disabilities. Responding to what he has found to be a pervasive lack of employment opportunities, he is publishing a paper that debunks some of the myths employers often believe about disabled workers. Like in the United States, stigma, not impairment, is holding back disabled people from reaching their full potential.

Wheelchair access to Moscow Metro. Very few stations have elevators.

As we headed into the metro, I put something together. I’d noticed a little track running along the side of the staircase earlier in the day and questioned what it was for. Seeing it a second time, I realized that it was the only means of access for a wheelchair rider to get down into the metro.

Our next stop was НАШ СОЛНЕЧНЫЙ МИР" / "OUR SUNNY WORLD," a lead organization in Russia offering community and education for autistic children and adults.

The visit was wonderful (and not just because they served some amazing Russian cakes and tea). They’d recently moved into a big new building, and as they took us on a tour (or “excursion” as all the organizations I visited called it), I was immediately disoriented. Every hallway and corridor looked the same as the last, but they’d open the doors to reveal exciting spaces for ensuring that autistic people have access to experiences that go beyond services – a room where a group of women sat around making paper flowers that they showed off to us, a theater space with photos from some of their past performances, a studio for film animation,and a model classroom where students can grow comfortable in a classroom setting before being mainstreamed - to name a few examples. I hope someday we will see some of the films they are making at Superfest!

In the evening, I trekked over to see Red Square and St Basil’s church. Exhausted, I returned to my hotel room, excited by how much I’d already experienced on my first day.

Day 2: We headed to Перспектива/Perspektiva, which actually developed out of the Bay Area’s World Institute on Disability. Their 70-person staff (which includes many disabled people) is working on inclusive education, adaptive sports, employment, and also preparing for their next “Breaking Down Barriers,” a disability film festival that was inspired after the Executive Director attended Superfest many years ago.

Meeting Tanya, Breaking Down Barrier’s coordinator, was a highlight of the trip. How often do you get to meet someone who does the exact same job as you in a different country? Close in age to me as well, we fell into a conversation easily. (ADD PIC). We swapped notes on recent films that our respective festivals had featured and compared strategies for providing the complex access features that hosting a disability film festival requires.

We uncovered differences between our two festivals too. Because Moscow still has a lot of work to do to make the city accessible, their venues are often only partially accessible, and she shared how they recently had to construct an accessible bathroom outside one of their host sites. In addition, Breaking Down Barriers has definitely been more successful at receiving mainstream media attention, and often includes jurors who are well known in the mainstream Russian film scene, a group we’ve yet to fully tap into for Superfest.

"Corrections Class" falls in line with "disability as tragic" trope.

When I shared that I’d be giving a presentation for the Volga Encounters Festival on common tropes of disability in mainstream American films, Tanya was able to confirm that they see all the same stereotypes in Russia, and provided a list of examples.

After sneaking in some last-minute souvenir shopping on the way back from our last meeting, we headed to the airport and flew to Cheboksary, the capital city of the Chuvashia Republic, over 400 miles outside Moscow. We were greeted at the airport by 5 students from the local university who were volunteering their time as interpreters for the Volga Encounters Festival.

We loaded up in a van and drove to the hotel with the American teenagers and the Russian college kids, all discussing their favorite American movies and music (most of which might as well have been Russian groups, as they were all foreign to me). Still jetlagged, I headed to bed as soon as we arrived at the hotel.

Day 3: The Eurasia Foundation arranged for the American teenagers to tour a local tv station, which includes a news show run by youths, and lined me up to be interviewed for their program. When I walked off the set, it was explained to me that the kids at the TV studio had set out a glass of Coke instead of water for me to drink, assuming this is what all Americans drink. And I thought I’d just be working to challenge disability stereotypes while over there!

We headed to the opening ceremony for the Volga Encounters Festival, which involved not one, not two, but THREE songs written specifically for the festival I was about to attend by past attendees. Though I couldn’t understand any of the lyrics, my excitement for the festival had still increased by the end. We then rode a boat to the main location for the festival, a children’s camp in a forested area off the Volga river that reminded me of my days in the Girl Scouts. I received lots of attention from Russian kids attending the festival while on the boat, who were eager to meet an American. However, by the time we reached the camp, word had spread that there were also American teenagers traveling to the festival, and while their celebrity status grew, so I was no longer the main recipient of all that celebrity attention.

Day 4-7: For the next few days, I hung around the festival, eating delicious food and giving presentations. I co-presented a master class with Russian filmmaker Georgii Molodtsov, who makes PSAs that change perceptions of disability. Together, we laid out strategies for avoiding the common stereotypes of disability through film.

After a sparsely attended workshop, I was pleased to see a full room for my evening screening of Superfest films. It was an ironic venue: a repurposed gym, surrounded by exercise equipment, but as the camp was originally built for health and fitness, spaces like this were what the organizers had to work with. I worried in advance: would the films that we select for our Bay Area audience resonate in a different culture? Fortunately, the first hand raised responding to the first film I’d screened (“The Interviewer,” Best of Festival 2014) put my concerns to rest: “That was the best film about disability I’ve ever seen!” The success of the session, especially in contrast to the low attendance of my master class, reminded me what I love about Superfest; films provide such an inviting, accessible way to transform people’s thinking about disability.

During my downtime, I continued to meet with some of the festival attendees. I particularly enjoyed meeting two students with disabilities. One student, Simon, shared a dream of starting a camp in Russia for kids with disabilities and envisioned it as a place where American kids with disabilities would come to attend too. I also met Ksenia, a young filmmaker in a wheelchair who was interested in documenting the challenges and strategies of traveling with a disability. She lit up as I told her about John Hockenberry, a wheelchair rider like herself who is an NPR journalist on “The Takeaway” and encouraged her to read his book Moving Violations, which includes experiences of his travel around the world.

By the closing ceremony, which included a remarkable magic show, I was missing my kids and had picked up a cold, so I felt ready to return home.

Day 8-9: After a day of sight-seeing in Cheboksary, I flew back to Moscow and then took off for San Francisco early the next morning.

So how do I take what I observed and use the knowledge I gained to help me better do my work? I imagine I’ll be considering this question for some time, but one lesson from the trip has preoccupied a lot of my thinking since I’ve returned.

In hosting Superfest, we receive a fair amount of films that might be very significant in their home country, but are rejected because in the Bay Area, the content will seem too basic. For example, we’ve seen a number of non-US submissions about how minimal access is in the filmmaker’s country and the journey to increase access. Our jurors often call these films “Disability 101,” whereas Superfest looks for “disability 201,” seeking to engage our audience with new issues in disability that go beyond basic access issues, personal journeys to accept disability identity, and the like.

Yet, as I traveled in Russia and learned about where the Russian disability movement is right now, seeing what access looks like in the metro for example, or learning that inclusive education has only recently been mandated and still only happens in about 2% of Moscow schools, I realized that we in the Bay Area could benefit from more opportunities to learn about what is and isn’t being provided for disabled people in Russia and other countries outside the US. Whether or not Superfest is the right place for sharing these stories, I’m still pondering, but regardless, I know that I benefited tremendously from this rare and privileged opportunity to learn about the experiences of disabled people outside my community. We cannot claim a victory for the fight for “disability equality” until it has reached disabled people in the United States, Russia, and everything up, down, and in between. Many people with disabilities have made this point already, but there’s nothing like leaving the bubble to help you see it.

Emily poses with Eurasia Foundation's SEE staff.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the US-Russia Social Expertise Exchange or Eurasia Foundation.

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accessibility

disability

Eurasia Foundation

Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability

Superfest

Superfest: International Disability Film Festival

tropes in media

5 Reasons to Buy Your Tickets to Superfest Today!

Visitor — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 19:45:31 +0000

With Superfest: International Disability Film Festival just a few weeks away, we encourage you to join us for the 30th anniversary celebration!

Screenings are October 22nd at 1pm & 6pm, with Party at 4:30, at The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life in Downtown Berkeley; and October 23rd at 1pm at The Contemporary Jewish Museum in Downtown San Francisco.

5 Reasons to Buy Your Tickets to Superfest Today:

1. It’s Superfest’s 30th Anniversary and we’re having a big party!

2. The festival is emceed by 2 hilarious comedians with disabilities.

Follow Nina G on Twitter @NinaGComedian

3. With a record number of submissions and films from around the globe, you'll love this line up!

4. Free access tours at The Contemporary Jewish Museum. Arrive early on Sunday for described and ASL interpreted tours of the museum.

5. Superfest is the most accessible film festival in the world—we have open captioning, audio description, live captioning, integrated seating for wheel chair riders, scent free zone, assisted listening devices, ASL interpreters, and more. Buy your TICKETS today!

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accessibility

disability

Superfest 2016

Superfest: International Disability Film Festival

Uncategorized

An Interview with Superfest Judge and Audio Describer Katie Murphy

Visitor — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 17:35:22 +0000

Continuing our series of interviews with the folks who made Superfest 2016 possible , Grad Assistant Robyn Ollodort spoke with Katie Murphy, former Longmore Institute grad assistant and audio describer extraordinaire. Katie's audio description is used for the film Like If..., in which an unlikely heroine emerges and attempts to save the world. Like If... screens Saturday, October 22nd at 6pm. Buy your tickets to Superfest now at: superfestfilm.com/tickets/

Robyn Ollodort: As a part of the Superfest 2016 judging weekend, I got to see your fantastic audio description skills firsthand. Tell me about your process in audio describing.

Katie Murphy: For the judging weekend, I was doing live, on-the-spot description without having seen the films before. So, that’s very different from creating an audio description track for a film. With live audio description, particularly for media I have not seen before, the process begins and ends when the film does. When I am watching, I make note of important details being conveyed visually and then wait for a moment of quiet in the film to describe those details. This is tricky when I haven’t seen the film previously, because I have no idea when those quiet moments will come up or how long they’ll last. As Cathy and Bryan, the two judges I was describing for, can tell you, this means I occasionally begin description only to stop after a word or two because the quiet moment was only one or two seconds long. Live audio description like this is very much in the moment.

Creating an audio description track that will be added to a film in post-production is much more precise, but also more time consuming. I start by loading the film into InqScribe, my favorite transcription software, and then using the timestamp feature to record all the pauses in the film. Depending on the film, any pause longer than 3 seconds is fair game for inserting description. I record 2 second pauses as well in case I get desperate for space later on.

The next step is rewatching the film and filling in the pauses with description. I do this in InqScribe as well, because it allows me to use hot keys to pause and start the film without having to toggle between a Word file and a media player. When writing, I time myself to make sure that the description fits into the pause. If it doesn’t, I revise along the way.

Depending on the project, I might send the finished script to the director for approval before recording.

Then I record, using my laptop and a USB mic. I probably do at least three takes (if not more) of each segment of description, because I’m a perfectionist, and the description needs to fit into not just the pause, but also the tone of the film. I don’t do funny voices or accents or anything, but I do change the pitch and cadence of my speech to match the genre and scene. If the characters are at a funeral, I’m not going to use my perky phone voice.

Once the recording is finished, depending on the project, I either send the audio file to the filmmaker or mix it into the film file myself.

Then I take a nap.

RO: At the judging weekend, you were very transparent in linking having autism and being a good audio describer; why do you think that is, and what makes for strong audio description and a strong audio describer?

KM: Being autistic informs so much of who I am that it’s often hard to pick out how my autistic identity specifically impacts the areas in which I excel. If I am weirdly good at something right off the bat (like audio description) or completely helpless at a given task for no perceivable reason (like juggling), I tend to chalk it up to being autistic. For areas that I don’t excel, I’m typically compelled (either by myself or some authority) to explain exactly how being autistic negatively impacts my performance. For example, I suck at juggling because of poor coordination and motor planning--two autistic traits. It’s rare that I am asked to explain how being autistic makes me good at stuff, so thank you for asking.

In the case of audio description, a lot of things I already do help me be a good audio describer.

Creating strong audio description requires the describer to sort through a ton of audio and visual data to present the most relevant information. This is something people do in their everyday lives, but for many autistic people the process is much more deliberate. Since I have issues with sensory processing, my brain doesn’t automatically sort through external stimuli, so I have to consciously ignore irrelevant sensory information and focus on what’s important. Since I do this pretty much every moment of my waking life, I have years more of experience than your average allistic audio describer. Sorting through this much information requires a lot of mental and physical energy, so I’ve developed a good deal of stamina.

But I do give myself breaks to prevent sensory overload. One of the ways I do that is by listening to audiobooks when I’m out and about. I do not leave the house without my iPod, my big headphones, and an audiobook (usually sci-fi or non-fiction, because I’m a walking stereotype). As a consequence, I spend hundreds of hours a year listening to professional voice talent, absorbing cadences that work, cringing at poor production aspects. All that helps me when I’m recording. I know what makes something good.

RO: Audio description traverses the territory of objectivity and subjectivity, in that what and how you describe what you see carries with it an implicit assumption of what is important; how do you navigate choosing the 'important' things to describe?

KM: I try to balance what I believe the filmmaker is trying to communicate with what blind and low vision audience need to know to understand the film. And that changes with every project.

For example, I’ve done audio description for performance art pieces where the visual details convey the story or message in very intricate ways. So my description would include details that would not be so important in a narrative film. It might be really important for a performance art piece for everyone in the audience to know how many oranges are on the floor.

But for a narrative film, unless the oranges are an important plot point, I don’t have to go into as much detail about set dressings. Instead, I’d focus my energies on choosing language that best communicates the story and the characters. I get to imagine how I would describe the character or action if I was writing a novelization of the film.

Audio description is layers of subjectivity piled on top of each other. The description is the describer’s subjective understanding of the filmmaker’s subjective artistic message and the audience’s subjective desires.

RO: So you audio described the Superfest 2016 film Like If...; is there anything we can expect to hear in that audio description?

KM: Come Se… is an Italian film, so in addition to me on audio description, you will also hear Jennifer Sachs (of the San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired) dubbing the main character’s internal monologue. So you will have four straight minutes of three women speaking (one in Italian and two in English) in a science fiction film. Which is not something you hear every day in Hollywood.

RO: You worked previously at the Longmore Institute; how do you think your time there has influenced your perspective?

KM: Thanks to my time at Longmore I am very intentional about the language I use in audio description. By screening films at Superfest with open audio description (rather than handing out headsets upon request), Longmore argues that audio description is an access feature as well as a text in its own right. As a creative text, it’s not above criticism.

I think with audio description there is a real risk of perpetuating the paternalism disabled people experience by assuming that providing audio description of any quality is good enough. There’s a risk of film and television studios patting themselves on the back like, “Oh, aren’t we being so nice by providing audio description to the disabled,” and not really caring if the audio description is actually helpful or aesthetically pleasing. Working at Longmore showed me that people do notice if the description is good or bad. People do analyze the words that you’re saying. They do consider how you are editing the description into the film.

And that really encourages me to push myself and approach writing description with the same thoughtfulness and precision as I would a speech or blog post.

RO: Do you see a career for yourself in audio description?

KM: I would love to keep doing audio description as a freelancer. I really enjoy the opportunity to work closely with artists and community organizations to increase access and make something that sounds good.

If you are interested in hiring Katie to audio describe your film, she can be contacted at: catherinekatiemurphy@gmail.com

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Superfest: International Disability Film Festival

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Institute Director Kudlick: The Chronicle for Higher Ed's accessibility doesn't make the grade

Visitor — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 21:22:33 +0000

The following letter to the editor appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education on Sept. 28, 2016.

To the Editor:

Kudos for introducing disability as a viable diversity topic! I was pleased to read about a number of different situations and perspectives (Special Report: Diversity in Academe: Disability on Campus, The Chronicle, September 18).

I found it worrisome however how The Chronicle failed to model access in the very articles that talked about accessibility. Case in point: “DeafSpace by Design” should include audio description. And for the record, your iPad app still isn’t accessible to the device’s built-in screen-reading software. It would be great if The Chronicle could model access in everything it does (even when it isn’t related to disability) now that the articles it promotes show how access brings value.

Catherine Kudlick
Professor of History
Director, Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability
San Francisco State University

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Catherine Kudlick

education

The Chronicle of Higher Education

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An Interview with Upcoming Superfest Filmmaker: Michael Achtman

Visitor — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 18:21:36 +0000

Enjoy this interview where Longmore Grad Assistant Alex Locust spoke with Michael Achtman, director of the film Awake, in anticipation of Superfest 2016. Awake is about the unlikely friendship that forms between two blind women: Anna, a woman living with Multiple Sclerosis is visited by Doreen, a door to door proselytizer who makes herself at home and stays the day, slowly defrosting her non-welcome. Together they walk in the park, bake a chocolate cake, and watch an Ingmar Bergman film. For more information about Michael, and his work, visit his website. Awake screens at Superfest Sunday, October 23rd, at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in downtown San Francisco.

Watch the trailer; for audio description of the trailer, click here.

Alex Locust: What was the inspiration for this film?

Michael Achtman: The inspiration for Awake was a 1963 film by Ingmar Bergman called Winter Light. The first time I saw it I fell asleep half way through, and went into a surreal, dreamy state. I ended up using that in the film, where Doreen and Anna are watching an audio described version of the Bergman film. Doreen says, “Is this the type of thing you usually watch?” And then in Doreen’s dream, they become the characters from the Bergman film. Bergman’s film is about a Swedish pastor who has lost his faith. I came up with the idea of a blind Jehovah’s Witness, which provided a way for two strangers to meet, one who has faith and the other who doesn’t. Faith in a larger sense, not religious but just to get through the day.

AL: Tell us more about the casting process - did you have a goal of hiring disabled actors?

MA: I know a lot of disabled actors, so basically I’m writing for and casting my friends. In addition to that, I’m very interested in the representation of disabled people on film, so it gives me a lot to work with. You create something and realise it hasn’t been done before – that’s powerful and very motivating.

AL: Describe your experience working with actors who are blind (accessibility features on set, scripts, travel, etc.)?

MA: It wasn’t that big of a deal. Scripts were provided electronically and we covered travel expenses. Margo and Alex, the actors, had support workers on set, whom they were able to pay through a UK programme called Access to Work. Otherwise, I would have had to budget for that. We filmed in Alex’s house, so she had a familiarity with the set; otherwise she would have needed time to get familiar enough with the space to make it believable that she actually lived there. The two guide dogs got along, which was lucky – they spent most of the time cramped together in a small room upstairs! If people are really wondering how to work with Deaf or disabled actors (or crew members), just ask them what they need. Sit down and have a chat before you go into production and try to envision every situation that might come up. But I would recommend doing that with every actor. You might find out someone has an invisible impairment, like dyslexia or pain issues, and that will inform your approach. Doreen, the LDS proselytizer, left, and Anna, right, sitting on a bench in a park.

AL: Some people in the community are frustrated with the lack of opportunities for disabled actors to play disabled characters in film. What advice do you have for filmmakers trying to cast disabled actors in their films?

MA: Go see their work and get to know them. It’s true, in the UK anyway – there are lots of fabulous Deaf and disabled actors who don’t get enough opportunities to stretch their muscles. When they do get cast, it’s as “the blind person” or “the wheelchair user.” Write something (or find a script) that isn’t all about their impairment – but more about character, situation and a believable world. That’s not to say you can’t deal with disability-specific issues – for example, the social service cuts in the UK are affecting disabled people’s lives hugely, and there’s lots of potential for drama there. But a film about that would need to focus on particular, well-rounded characters, who have both virtues and flaws. That said, you need to think about whether your filmmaking process is accessible. Money is such a big issue that we tend to work in trying conditions, with long days, on a set in the middle of nowhere, that doesn’t have an accessible bathroom. If you want to use an actor who has fatigue issues, for example, you’re going to have to take that into consideration when scheduling, using more shorter days, and budget for that from the start.

AL: While some of the moments in Awake are somber, there are some great comedic elements as well. Did you all have fun on set? Any stories you can share?

MA: It was a tiny crew, so we were like family, and we had a lot of fun. We shot the film in two days, so you had to either laugh or cry! There’s a moment in the film where the two women are passing a spliff – they struggle to find each other’s hands and when they finally do they break out in laughter. That was unscripted and real, and it turned out to be an important turning point in the film – it’s the first time you see Anna laugh or even smile. I was just praying that we captured that properly on film because we couldn’t have repeated it so spontaneously. Anna, left, and Doreen, right, in the infamous spliff scene.

AL: What audiences did you have in mind when you made this film?

MA: An intelligent, sexy audience like the one at Superfest.

AL: Can you tell us about the decision to make the film black and white?

MA: That was inspired by the Bergman film. I felt that aesthetic represented Anna’s world, and the shades of grey – well, I’m getting too arty. But it ended up having a lot of resonance because the approaches to life of the two characters are so opposite. Also, you save on colour grading! Doreen, left, and Anna, right, baking a cake.

AL: What do you want audiences to leave Awake with?

MA: I hope it doesn’t sound preachy, but it’s not your circumstances, it’s your attitude. Depression is not something you can snap your fingers and make vanish, but sometimes a little human contact and compassion can turn things in another direction. In a wider sense, I think the films creates an identification with two blind women in a way that makes their lives seem ordinary. The drama is not about their impairments, it’s about the clashing of their temperaments and philosophies.

AL: What does being a part of Superfest mean to you as a filmmaker?

MA: We’re very honoured to be part of such a prestigious festival, and excited to show the film to the Bay Area audience. The Superfest mandate is sophisticated – you’ve seen the traditional representations of disability and you’re trying to show something different – and that’s exactly what the film is trying to do.

Buy your tickets to Superfest to catch Awake and more great films!

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Superfest: International Disability Film Festival

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Missed Joshua Miele's Talk at the Longmore Lecture?: Watch it here!

Visitor — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 18:21:51 +0000

The Annual Longmore Lecture in Disability Studies presents Dr. Josh Miele:
"How Access Really Happens: Disability, Technology, and Design Thinking”

March 2, 2016

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtKf45Oc_8A]

Click here to read a guest post by Joshua Miele on our blog.

Josh Miele Bio:

Dr. Miele is a scientist with over 25 years of experience in developing innovative, information-accessibility solutions for blind people. He has a bachelors degree in physics and a Ph.D. in psychoacoustics from the University of California at Berkeley. As Director of the Description Research and Innovation Lab (DRIL), and Associate Director of the Smith-Kettlewell Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Blindness and Low Vision, he leads a team of engineers and scientists dedicated to addressing a wide variety of accessible information challenges in education, employment, and entertainment. His leadership of the DRIL (Formerly the Video Description Research and Development Center) energetically integrates accessibility engineering, education research, psychophysics, disability studies, and other disciplines, applying description technologies and techniques to a universe of information accessibility challenges.

Outside of his professional work at Smith-Kettlewell, Dr. Miele is an active member of the Bay Area’s vibrant disability community. He is a former board member of both the Bay area Outreach and Recreation Program (BORP), and the Ed Roberts Campus (ERC). He is the Immediate Past President of the board of the San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and is cofounder and Creative Director of LightHouse Labs — a Bay Area think tank which promotes tightening ties between technology innovators and the blind community.

Dr. Miele is the inventor of the Descriptive Video Exchange (DVX), YouDescribe, WearaBraille, Tactile Maps Automated Production (TMAP), the Talking Tactile Pen (TTP), Sonification tools for MATLAB, Virtual Talking Signs, Simulated Sighted Stranger (SSS), and a number of other tools and diversions for blind consumers. He has also made contributions to screen reader technology, computer-vision applications for the blind, haptic exploration research, and disability humor. Dr. Miele lives in Berkeley, California, the City of the Blind.

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LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Longmore Lecture

technology

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