Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Visual Voice gives form to theater

By Bob Aldrich

Madelyn Dovano has learned a lot about the world of the blind.

The Los Gatos resident, who is able to see, became well-acquainted with the problems of the blind and visually impaired through her work with Visual Voice, a company she founded to provide audio captioning at Bay Area theatrical performances and other events.

"People don't understand the needs of the blind very well," she says. "We sighted people walk into a room and instantly know where things are and where we are in relation to them." With only hearing and touch to go by, the blind need specific guidance.

"We say something is big. How big is big? You have to describe it minutely, or else help them to lay hands on something."

On Dec. 7, Dovano helped conduct a tactile tour of the Christmas in the Park display in downtown San Jose. "There were huge ornaments on a tree," she says. "It doesn't work to say the ornaments are large. We put one into their hands and they gasped."

Dovano and her describers, who are trained for the task and paid, will be providing audio service for two performances of The Nutcracker Ballet at the San Francisco Opera House Dec. 28 and 29. (Call 408/450-1530 for information.) Visual Voice has provided narration for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and for skater Dorothy Hamill at the San Jose Arena, for a production of She Loves Me Not at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts and for performances at the San Jose CPA. Narration is planned for The Man Who Came to Dinner Jan. 6-7 at Lucie Stern Theater, Palo Alto.

Dovano, whose also heads MTD Enterprises, which makes commercial videos, has provided narration for the blind for two films, Scent of a Woman and Schindler's List.

While television provides visual aid for the deaf, so far there is no TV assistance for the blind, but engineers are working on it, she said. It would require TV stations to install special equipment.

The idea of Visual Voice is to provide for the blind what sign language does for the deaf. Describers sit in a booth at the back of the house and speak through radio microphones. Their words, spoken softly, are picked up by the devices furnished to visually impaired patrons, who wear an earpiece. Describers have studied the playscript beforehand. They know when they can speak so as not to cut off an actor's speech or song.

Before assigning describers to narrate the circus, Dovano flew to Anaheim to see the show.

"We really study a script," Dovano says. "It takes hours of training to know how to do this." Describers see the show before they attempt to describe it.

Show presenters pay for the voice narration. While a few have been reluctant, most recognize the public-relations advantage of having the service. Visually impaired people usually are offered half-price tickets.

An incentive for producers to employ Visual Voice is the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1992, which requires theater owners and tenants to make "reasonable modifications" and to offer "auxiliary aids and services." Though narration for the blind has not been enforced, presenters see the advantage of compliance, Dovano says.

"Word is getting around more," Dovano says. "At our last show, we had walk-ins, blind people who had not been contacted before."

Reaching the blind to let them know of Visual Voice can be difficult, she says. "Sometimes they live withdrawn lives. But not always. Many blind people are very active." She mentions Roger Petersen, who is employed in Silicon Valley and who has assisted her with critiques.

The pleasure enjoyed by the visually impaired is one of the rewards, she says. Subscribers are sent an audio cassette before they see the show; it describes much the same way a printed playbill does. Before the curtain goes up, describers talk about what is coming. And after the show, they may meet actors and touch garments and props.

Dovano has learned how exact and specific help to the blind must be. "I was leading several and told them there were a few steps just ahead. Everyone halted. When I asked why, they said, 'Up or down?' "

For $500 to $2,000, Visual Voice or San Francisco-based Audio Vision will handle promotion and ticket sales, prepare a script and furnish broadcast equipment. Receivers cost $75.

Describers, unnoticed by the rest of the audience, must be prepared for the unexpected. At one show, a patron collapsed and the play was held up a few minutes. The describers calmly explained what was happening.

Dovano's interest in musical theater contributed to her interest in starting Visual Voice. She studied dance with Paul Curtis in Los Gatos until she injured a knee on a Colorado River excursion. Two of her cousins were in opera. It was when she was selected as a describer for a pilot project describing performances of the Civic Light Opera for blind audience members that Dovano was inspired to start her own business.

Dovano, who is the mother of four, attended schools in Akron, Ohio, and Kent State University. Visual Voice conducts a three-day weekend workshop to train describers; the next is planned for February.

Lecturing to a group, Dovano recognized a blind man in the audience and described the room for him. "When I finished, he applauded," he said. "The rest looked a little puzzled.

"You have to let blind people know where they are."