The Access Board

United States Access Board
1331 F Street NW
Suite 1000
Washington, DC  20004-1111
Phone: (202) 272-0080
TTY: (202) 272-0082
Fax: (202) 272-0081
E-mail: ta@access-board.gov
Web site: http://www.access-board.gov

The Access Board is an independent Federal agency devoted to accessibility for people with disabilities. Created in 1973 to ensure access to federally funded facilities, The Board is now a leading source of information on accessible design. The Board not only develops and maintains design criteria for the built environment and transit vehicles, but also provides telecommunications equipment and technical assistance and training for electronic and information technology. Half of its members are representatives from most of the Federal departments. Other members are presidentially appointed.

Audio Description Associates

Contact: Joel Snyder
6502 Westmoreland Avenue
Takoma Park, MD  20912
Voice: (301) 920-0218  
Fax: (208) 445-0079
E-mail: jsnyder@audiodescribe.com
Web site: http://www.audiodescribe.com

Audio Description Associates provides audio description services for visual images of theater, media and visual arts exhibitions for people who are blind or have low vision. They also offer audio description training workshops and seminars.

The Media Access Group at WGBH

Boston Office
125 Western Avenue
Boston, MA 02134
Phone: (617) 300-3600
Fax: (617) 300-1020
E-mail: access.wgbh.org
Web-site: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/services/

Los Angeles Office
300 E. Magnolia Boulevard, 2nd Floor
Burbank, CA 91502
Phone: (818) 562-3344
TTY: (818) 562-1919
Fax: (818) 562-3388
E-mail: access@wgbh.org
Web site: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/services/

New York Office
545 Fifth Avenue, Suite 609
New York, NY 10017
Phone: (212) 490-3677
Fax: (212) 490-3688
E-mail:access@wgbh.org
Web site: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/services/

The Media Access Group is an umbrella organization which consists of three smaller service organizations: The Caption Center, Descriptive Video Services® (DVS), and the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM). The Caption Center, founded in 1972, maintains an ongoing commitment to conducting outreach among viewers with hearing loss, those learning English as a second language, and people of all ages learning to read. DVS, founded in 1990, pioneered access to television for viewers who are blind or visually impaired. NCAM is a research, development and advocacy entity dedicated to the issues of media and information technology for people with disabilities. For an alphabetical listing of NCAM’s projects, click on the following link: http://ncam.wgbh.org/projects/

The Metropolitan Washington Ear, Inc.

35 University Boulevard East
Silver Spring, MD  20901
Phone: (301) 681-6636
Fax: (301) 681-5227
Email: information@washear.org 
Web site: http://www.washear.org/ 

The Metropolitan Washington Ear, Inc. is a national organization that conducts research and provides services for persons who are blind or have partial vision, as well as people with other disabilities.  In 1980, The Ear worked with Arena Stage in Washington, DC to perfect audio-description, a technique that uses trained narrators to describe, between lines of dialogue, what is happening on the screen, television, or stage.

Narrative Television Network
5840 South Memorial Drive
Suite 312
Tulsa, OK  74145
Phone: (918) 627-1000
Fax: (918) 627-4101
E-mail: info@narrativetv.com
Web site: http://www.narrativetv.com/

Narrative Television Network (NTN), founded in 1988 by people with vision loss, makes movies and television accessible by unobtrusively adding audio description (delivered via broadcast, cable, satellite, and the Internet) to an existing soundtrack. NTN currently provides accessible programming for a number of broadcasting and cable networks and also offers free audio described movie selections online. For a listing of movies, please click on the following link: http://narrativetv.com/films.htm

National Captioning Institute, Inc.

NCI Virginia Office:
Contact: Karen O’Connor
1900 Gallows Road
Suite 3000
Vienna, VA  22182
Phone: (703) 917-7600
Fax (703) 917-9853
E-mail:koconnor@ncicap.org 
Web site: http://www.ncicap.org/
 
NCI California Office
Contact: Elissa Sarna
303 North Glenoaks Boulevard
Suite 200
Burbank, CA  91502
Phone: (818) 238-0068
Fax: (818) 238-4266
E-mail: esarna@ncicap.org
Web site: http://www.ncicap.org/ 
 
NCI Texas Office:
Contact: Karen O’Connor
7610 N. Stemmons Freeway
Suite 200
Dallas, TX  75247
Phone: (214) 647-4360
Fax: (214) 647-4386
Email: koconnor@ncicap.org
Web site: http://www.ncicap.org/  

The National Captioning Institute (NCI) is a nonprofit corporation that provides captioning, subtitling and audio description for broadcast and cablecast television programs, home video programs, TV commercials, corporations and government agencies. To request a price quote, please click on the following link: http://www.ncicap.org/request_quote.asp

Taping For The Blind, Inc.
3935 Essex Lane
Houston, TX  77027
Phone: (713) 622-2767
Fax:  (713) 622-2772
E-mail: info@Tapingfortheblind.org
Web site: http://www.tapingfortheblind.org/

Taping for the Blind, Inc. provides various services, including custom recording and audio description. Houston Taping for the Blind Radio (HTBR) offers free streaming audio over the Web, providing 24-hour broadcasting, with readings from the Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, Reader’s Digest, National Geographic magazine and other publications. These readings also include a morning, afternoon and evening book hour. To view program listings, please click on the following link: http://www.tapingfortheblind.org/program_index.htm