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JACK STRAW PRODUCTIONS' BLIND ACCESS INITIATIVE AND TRAINING PROGRAMS
Jack Straw Productions, in partnership with Arts for Visually Impaired Audiences (AVIA) and the Washington State Department of Services for the Blind (DSB), is proud to offer a variety of programs providing access and training in audio production for blind and visually impaired individuals of all ages.
The Seattle Channel featured the Jack Straw Blind Youth Audio Program on its "Community Stories" Program. Watch the program online.
The Blind Youth Audio Project
The Blind Youth Audio Project, initiated in 1995, is an annual workshop series run in conjunction with DSB's Youth Employment Solutions (YES) program. Blind and visually impaired high school students from across Washington state are housed at the University of Washington for 6 weeks while participating in job placement programs all around Seattle. As an extracurricular component to the program, students are invited to attend a series of 8 workshops (twice weekly for four weeks) at Jack Straw's Studios, a few blocks from the UW campus.
Typically 12-18 students participate in the program each summer, working with JSP staff engineers, theater artists, and guest musicians and sound artists. A principal advisor in this program is Todd Houghton, a blind musician/engineer/producer. The workshops span a range of audio projects and skills including: short radio drama production, soundscaping (live and mix projects), interview and radio production, multitrack and stereo music recording and mixing, and long-form radio theater creation and production.
Students from the Washington State School for the Blind summer youth program also come to Jack Straw every summer for an intensive 3-hour workshop on music, radio theater, and basic audio.
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Blind Youth Audio Project 2006: Jack Straw engineer Moe Provencher & Todd Houghton (Dean Wong) |
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Sound and Movement
In 2008, we began working with a new partner, the Pacific Northwest Ballet. In the spring, AVIA and Jack Straw brought a group of blind and visually impaired adults to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at PNB, with a back-stage touch tour and live audio-description. In June, we followed up with a workshop on dance and audio description, and in July we added a new movement and sound workshop to our Blind Youth program with dancers Shannon Barnes and Stephanie Scopelitis and sound artists Susie Kozawa and Esther Sugai.
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Blind Youth Audio Project 2008:
Esther Sugai at the Sound & Movement Workshop (Sherwin Eng)
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Blind Youth Audio Project 2008:
Sound & Movement Workshop
(Sherwin Eng)
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Audio Journalism
Blind high school student Abby Traverse, a Jack Straw veteran, worked with Jack Straw producer and mentor Jennie Cecil Moore on two audio projects.
Most recently, Abby completed an interview with Kristina Horner, a musician with the band The Parselmouths. The band is part of the wizard rock community, a group of musicians who create music inspired by the Harry Potter series of children's books. Abby prepared questions for the interview, interviewed Kristina in the studio, selected clips from the interview, wrote and recorded narration, selected music, and made editing decisions.
You can listen to Abby's interview with Kristina Horner here:
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Abby interviewing Kristina Horner
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In 2007, Abby produced an 8-minute feature on professions held by blind and visually impaired adults. The feature was based on a series of audio interviews conducted by 17 visually impaired high school students with 8 visually impaired adults at the Washington Council of the Blind conference in Seattle, Washington. The WCB interview program was produced by the Department of Services for the Blind and Jack Straw Productions. Transcripts and audio from the interviews are available online as part of the American Foundation for the Blind's Career Connect Project.
If you would be interested in being interviewed or joining our journalism group, email us at education@jackstraw.org.
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Abby Traverse at the WCB Conference
(Dean Wong) |
WCB Conference
(Dean Wong) |
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Accessible Adult Workshops
In 2003, we began offering workshops for blind and visually impaired adults. Based upon the long-running Blind Youth Audio Project, these workshops feature four intensive sessions. Skills taught include basic digital recording and production, studio acoustics, and microphone use and technique. Production segments have included: interview and radio production, stereo music recording, commercial production, and sound design.
Visually impaired adults are also offered a reduced rate to our professional audio workshops.
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Interactive Digital Audio Workstation
A primary component of all of our programs with blind and visually impaired persons is our newest digital audio workstation: a PC running Sonar audio editing software, as well as JAWS and Caketalking, which convert screen information into voice prompts from the computer. This workstation is fully functional for blind users, allowing recording, mixing, and editing of music and spoken word projects. Normally residing in an editing suite, the system can be relocated in either of JSP's two studio control rooms to facilitate recording and training projects.
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Training Residencies and Intensives
Jack Straw has been pleased to offer a limited number of training residencies and two-day intensive sessions. Intensives, open to groups or individuals focus on a specific aspect of audio productions, such as music multitrack recording or narrative production, and covers that topic over two full days. Residencies allow participants to work one-on-one with a professional engineer-instructor to learn the Sonar environment and basic recording and production technique. This format allows for extended use of the Sonar system, and the opportunity to complete a significant project. The goal of this training is complete self-sufficiency on the Sonar system. Past residencies include:
Nick Baker ~ Nick, a musician and high-school junior during the period of his residency, completed a CD with several musical pieces and a public service announcement, recorded and mixed on the Sonar system. Nick is interested in pursuing a commercial recording and production career, so an added emphasis was put on the ability to adhere to time constraints and complete the entire project on deadline.
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Nick Baker (Dean Wong)
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Maureen Shenberger and PJ McGraw ~ Over 10 hours of studio time, Maureen conducted field recordings and interviews, writing a narrative about her experiences as an Americorps volunteer. Both participants worked jointly to record, edit, and mix the material into a radio feature.
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| These programs were made possible with the generous support of the City of Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, VSA arts Met Life Foundation, Battelle, the Washington State Arts Commission, partner organizations, and individuals.
Our accessible workstations were purchased with the generous support of the City of Seattle Department of Information Technology and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
For further information, contact:
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