cfadi
Central Florida Audio Description Initiative
Bringing Audio Description to Central Florida’s Live Visual and Performing Arts
Tell me more about CFADI
What is the Audio Description Initiative?
The CFADI is a group of committed Central Florida arts enthusiasts--sighted, blind, and low vision; leaders, creators, and supporters--coming together to provide accessibility to the arts for people who are blind, have low vision, or simply have trouble seeing.
The easiest short-hand for this Initiative is that audio description should be as common and accepted in public spaces for audience members who are blind or have low vision as American Sign Language and captioning is for the Deaf/deaf and hard of hearing community; and as common and unremarkable as ramps, elevators, handrails, and grab bars are to facilitate access for people with mobility impairments.
What's the issue?
Audio description is becoming standard in film and television. It should also be standard in museums and attractions as well as in live visual and performing arts.
And right now, it isn't.
Not here in Central Florida. Not statewide. Nor are arts widely accessible to people who are blind or have low vision in the South, the East Coast of the US, or across the United States.
What can be done?
We can't solve the issues of the state or the country (yet), but we can start where we are, right here in Central Florida.
Members and visitors of this community—who happen to be blind, have low vision, or simply "have trouble seeing"—do not have access to arts and culture that their tax dollars (city, county, state, and federal) support.
CFADI is going to change that, and we need your help.
CFADI will become a centralized hub that will:
1. Provide education and training to arts organizations’ staff and volunteers on audio description program development, delivery, and serving the blind community.
2. Develop, train, and deploy audio description professionals to provide descriptions of local performing and visual arts performances.
3. Coordinate and deploy the technical infrastructure that can deliver audio description in any local theater, arts or cultural facility, or other relevant location.
4. Advocate for access for the blind anywhere anyone will listen through public speaking, free digital resources, and meeting with leaders of arts and cultural organizations.
Audio Description makes arts accessible.