[blindkid] Audio Descriptions in Disney World

[Kim Cunningham]

Representatives from Disney gave a presentation during General Session about the handheld descriptive device. We'll try it out in two years!
Kim Cunningham

--- On Sun, 7/10/11, Richard Holloway <rholloway at gopbc.org> wrote:


From: Richard Holloway <rholloway at gopbc.org>
Subject: [blindkid] Audio Descriptions in Disney World
To: "(for parents of blind children) NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Date: Sunday, July 10, 2011, 11:20 PM


If I'd known about this in advance, I would have posted it for others before the convention. We learned about this Friday at Disney World. I'm wondering if anyone else discovered the free Audio Description service from Disney in the Magic Kingdom. Perhaps other Disney parks have this as well?

If you're not familiar, when you go, visit guest services-- whatever they call that. In the magic Kingdom, it is on the left as you enter the park, before you head down Main Street, clear to the left side. In fact, I think they call it "City Hall". This is where you can also choose to get a pass for better access to rides for special needs visitors. Make your own decision about that, but I highly recommend the Audio Description service. For a fully refundable $25 deposit, they loan you a wireless receiver and headphones that "knows" where you are in the park and tells you about it, then on certain rides (such as It's a Small World, and Peter Pan) the device also tells you about the ride as you ride it. What a cool idea. Kendra was very pleased. In fact, it was so helpful and comprehensive that Kendra (with no light perception, mind you) was actually telling US where the gift shops were located. I guess fair is fair with that though-- if our sighted son
 can find and drag us to half of the gift shops, why can't Kendra know about and drag us to the others? LOL...

There is also a large, permanent Braille Map of the Park up front in the corner of City Hall which I thought was pretty nice to know about.

If you went and didn't discover this, dig out your park map and there are little "D(((" logos with a Disney "D" by selected rides. Those are described. Hopefully in a couple of years when we are back in Orlando, we'll know and remember enough about this to make parents aware of this service before the convention!

As to other discussions about Audio Descriptions, I have been in touch with our State NFB chapter and we have plans in the works to get our voices heard by our local PBS station about our desire to have DVS turned back on there. I hope anyone else who is having similar problems will think about taking similar steps. If we don't let these people know we want and need these services, they are much less likely to do anything for us and it can really mean a lot to our kids.

Richard
_______________________________________________
blindkid mailing list
blindkid at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindkid:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/kim%40gulfimagesphoto.com