
Title: Partnerships for Including people who are Deaf-Blind: The next frontier of cultural Access

Presenters: Bonnie S. Kaplan, Director of Cultural Access
		  	bsk@vsamass.org
  Charles J. Washburn, Executive Director
   	cjwashburn @vsamass.org
   VSA arts of Massachusetts
   China Trade Center
   2 Boylston Street
   Boston, MA  02116

   617-350-7713 (Voice)
   617-350-6836 (TTY)
   617-482-4298 (Fax)

Level: Introductory

Type of Session: Workshop

Session Strand: Inclusion (also appropriate for  Program Strength)

Session Track: Affiliate/Collaborator Staff (Interested Board members welcome)

Session Description: This workshop is an introduction to the Deaf-Blind community and the technology and techniques employed to make cultural events accessible them. We will describe model programs in theater and the performing arts and provide resources for connecting with the Deaf-Blind community in your area.

Content Description:  

What it Means to be Deaf-Blind, an overview of the community and the broad range of their sensory experience, causes of isolation and their support community.  We will share responses of the community to their participation in cultural events.

Creating Access: Who needs to be involved, a description of the roles played by everyone from the ushers and front of house staff to the Stage Manager, Interpreters and production staff.  Participants will receive a manual developed by The Deaf-Blind Theater Access Project with support from a VSAM ADA Cultural Access mini-Grant.

Elements of Success, a description of successful programs and what made them work.  This section will include video footage from the premier screening of the documentary Touching Lives, attended by over 20 members of the Boston Deaf-Blind community at the Museum of Fine Arts in January 2003.

Partnerships, a discussion of potential partners to help create Deaf-Blind inclusive programs.



Learner Outcomes:

1) Participants will understand the unique challenges presented when including people who are Deaf-Blind in live theater and other performing arts programs and will become familiar with the elements of successful inclusive model programs.
2) Participants will identify potential partners for sponsoring Deaf-Blind inclusive programs in their local communities.


Source of Information:

VSA arts of Massachusetts will draw upon our experience as a presenter and partner in designing cultural programs that include people who are Deaf and blind.  In 1998, working with jazz vocalist Lisa Thorson, VSA MA presented JAZZ ART SIGNS, a concert designed to model the application of Universal Design principals.  This production was our first experience with serving a Deaf-Blind inclusive audience.  We will be part of another production of JAZZ ART SIGNS this June in Portsmouth New Hampshire and this fall in Boston.  These productions give us first hand experience with the program elements, access technologies and partnerships needed to successfully serve the Deaf-Blind Community.

VSA MA also sponsored a project that resulted in the publication of the manual we will use in this workshop.

Another VSA MA sponsored initiative is the newly released documentary film, Touching Lives.  In January we were part of the team which sponsored the world premier screening at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  This unprecedented event was attended by over 20 Deaf-Blind movie goers using individual hand on hand sign interpretation, CART, face to face interpretation and proximate CRT monitors to facilitate participation.  VSA MA has documented these accommodations as part of a NEA video project intended to introduce cultural presenters to the technologies and services of cultural access.  We will use excerpts from this work in progress for this workshop.

