Narrative Television Network

Last updated

Narrative Television Network (NTN) makes movies, television shows and educational programming accessible to millions of blind and visually impaired people and their families. Founded in 1988 by Jim Stovall, the Narrative Television Network unobtrusively adds the voice of a narrator to the existing program between the dialogue so that blind or low vision people can hear what they can't see. The Narrative Television Network has received an Emmy Award, a Media Access Award and an International Film and Video Award for its pioneering work in making movies, television and educational programming accessible for the visually impaired. The Narrative Television Network website offers readers a “Text Only” version of its pages to increase accessibility for blind and visually impaired readers who use screen readers.

Contents

History [1]

When Narrative Television Network creator and president Jim Stovall lost his eyesight at age 28, he initially felt that he never wanted to leave the controlled environment of his home. Shortly thereafter, Jim Stovall met Kathy Harper in a support group for blind and visually impaired individuals, and the two discussed the challenges blind and visually impaired TV and movie audience members face because of missed visual components of stories.

Jim and Kathy began to research together and discovered that 13 million people in the United States have visual impairment severe enough to limit their enjoyment of TV shows and movies. This research inspired the two to develop a plan to make programming more accessible for blind and visually impaired people, and started by borrowing equipment to record some narrative soundtracks to begin their work with the goal of adding these soundtracks to existing movie audio.

[2] NTN now has 1,200 broadcast and cable affiliates, and is shown in eleven countries outside of the United States.

Narrators [3]

Narrative Television Network founder and president Jim Stovall works as one of the three primary narrators, adding his voice to educational and informational programming.

Susan Crane and Beth Sharp also work as primary narrators.

Susan Crane joined Narrative Television Network in 2001 to narrate television programming and movies. Beth Sharp joined Narrative Television Network in 2002 to work as a scriptwriter and to perform programming voice work.

Awards [4]

1990: Emmy Award

1991: Media Access Award

1993: Golden Georgi Award

1997: Evan Kemp Entrepreneurship Award from the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities

1998: Blue Chip Enterprise Award

2000: International Humanitarian of the Year Award

2001: Toastmaster's International Communication and Leadership Award

2006: Reynolds Society Achievement Award, Massachusetts Eye and Ear

2007: Heartland Film Festival Award for The Ultimate Gift

2007: Dove Honor for The Ultimate Gift

2008: Movie Guide Award for The Ultimate Gift

2009: Leader of the Year from the Department of Rehabilitative Services

2011: Judges' Choice Award, New Media Film Festival, for The Lamp

2011: Jim Stovall, NTN founder / president, named Chairman of the Description Leadership Network (DLN), made up of all of the industry providers in the field

Related Research Articles

Perkins School for the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts, was founded in 1829 and is the oldest school for the blind in the United States. It has also been known as the Perkins Institution for the Blind.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Screen reader</span> Assistive technology that converts text or images to speech or Braille

A screen reader is a form of assistive technology (AT) that renders text and image content as speech or braille output. Screen readers are essential to people who are blind, and are useful to people who are visually impaired, illiterate, or have a learning disability. Screen readers are software applications that attempt to convey what people with normal eyesight see on a display to their users via non-visual means, like text-to-speech, sound icons, or a braille device. They do this by applying a wide variety of techniques that include, for example, interacting with dedicated accessibility APIs, using various operating system features, and employing hooking techniques.

Audio description, (AD) also referred to as a video description, described video, or more precisely visual description, is a form of narration used to provide information surrounding key visual elements in a media work for the benefit of blind and visually impaired consumers. These narrations are typically placed during natural pauses in the audio, and sometimes overlap dialogue if deemed necessary. Occasionally when a film briefly has subtitled dialogue in a different language, such as Greedo's confrontation with Han Solo in the 1977 film Star Wars: A New Hope, the narrator will read out the dialogue in character.

Narrator is a screen reader in Microsoft Windows. Developed by Professor Paul Blenkhorn in 2000, the utility made the Windows operating system more accessible for blind and visually impaired users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Gilmore</span> American actor

Arthur Wells Gilmore, known as Art Gilmore was an American actor and announcer heard on radio and television programs, children's records, movies, trailers, radio commercials, and documentary films. He also appeared in several television series and a few feature films.

A radio reading service or reading service for the blind is a public service of many universities, community groups and public radio stations, where a narrator reads books, newspapers and magazines aloud for the benefit of the blind and vision-impaired. It is typically broadcast on a subcarrier, with radio receivers permanently tuned to a given station in the area, or an HD Radio subchannel of the offering station. Some reading services use alternative methods for reaching their audiences, including broadcasting over SAP, streaming Internet radio, cable TV, or even terrestrial TV.

The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is an American non-profit organization for people with vision loss. AFB's objectives include conducting research to advance change, promoting knowledge and understanding, and shaping policies and practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual impairment</span> Decreased ability to see

Visual or vision impairment is the partial or total inability of visual perception. For the former and latter case, the terms low vision and blindness respectively are often used. In the absence of treatment such as corrective eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment – visual impairment may cause the individual difficulties with normal daily tasks including reading and walking. In addition to the various permanent conditions, fleeting temporary vision impairment, amaurosis fugax, may occur, and may indicate serious medical problems.

National Talking Newspapers & Magazines, or NTN&M, is a charitable organization no longer based out of Heathfield East Sussex in the United Kingdom. They were previously known as Talking Newspaper Association of the United Kingdom or TNAUK. NTN&M provides audio versions of national newspapers and magazines in various formats such as audio cassette, CD, DAISY Digital Talking Book format as well as available online via MP3 and full E-text download, CD-ROM and email for the blind, disabled, and visually impaired. NTN&M currently offers audio transcriptions of over 200 individual publications and distributes over two million audio cassettes annually. Until recently most recordings were made in their nine Heathfield based studios, which worked continuously with the aid of volunteer readers Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm.

NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) is a free and open-source, portable screen reader for Microsoft Windows. The project was started by Michael Curran in 2006.

Jim Stovall is an American writer best known for his bestselling novel The Ultimate Gift. The book was made into the movie The Ultimate Gift, distributed by 20th Century Fox. The Ultimate Gift has a prequel called The Ultimate Life and a sequel called The Ultimate Legacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saibaba Goud</span> Indian ophthalmologist

Alampur Saibaba Goud is an Indian ophthalmologist and founder-chairman of the Devnar Foundation for the Blind. He is also a social entrepreneur, and active in the voluntary organization at Secunderabad in Telangana, a state of India. He works in the field of providing aid to visually challenged and visually disabled children in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retinitis Pigmentosa International</span>

Retinitis Pigmentosa International is an international, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is committed to focusing world attention on eye problems. RP International promotes research, public awareness, education, and human services for victims of degenerative eye diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AMI-tv</span> Canadian specialty TV channel

AMI-tv is a Canadian, English-language, digital cable specialty channel owned by the non-profit organization Accessible Media. AMI-tv broadcasts a selection of general entertainment programming with accommodations for those who are visually or hearing impaired, with audio descriptions on the primary audio track and closed captioning available across all programming.

The Cleveland Sight Center (CSC) is a non-profit organization that provides services to individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Founded in 1906, it is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and serves around 10,000 clients annually in Northeast Ohio. The organization also has radio-reading and community outreach programs that benefit a larger number of individuals.

The Council of Schools and Services for the Blind (COSB) is a consortium of specialized schools in Canada and the United States whose major goal is improving the quality of services to children who are blind and visually impaired.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chieko Asakawa</span> Japanese computer scientist

Chieko Asakawa is a blind Japanese computer scientist, known for her work at IBM Research – Tokyo in accessibility. A Netscape browser plug-in she developed, the IBM Home Page Reader, became the most widely used web-to-speech system available. She is the recipient of numerous industry and government awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010</span> US law

The Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA) is a United States accessibility law. Signed on October 8, 2010, by then-president Barack Obama, the bill amended the Communications Act of 1934 to include updated requirements for ensuring the accessibility of "modern" telecommunications to people with disabilities.

James W. Thatcher was an American computer scientist, and the inventor of the first screen reader, a type of assistive technology that enables the use of a computer by people with visual impairments.

Judy Castle Scott is an advocate and activist known for her work to improve the living conditions of the visually impaired. Blind herself, she worked for several public and private organizations dedicated to the cause, and served as the director of the American Foundation for the Blind, retiring in 2015. Over the course of her career, Scott has been the recipient of various accolades, including being inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame.

References

  1. "About the Narrative Television Network". www.narrativetv.com. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  2. Jim Stovall has been a national champion Olympic weightlifter, a successful investment broker, and an entrepreneur. In 2000, Stovall was selected as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce. In 2010, Stovall received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Council of the Blind for his work with the Narrative Television Network.
  3. "The NTN Narrators". www.narrativetv.com. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  4. "NTN Awards". www.narrativetv.com. Retrieved 6 December 2016.