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Making Theatre Accessible A Guide to Audio Description in the Performing Arts A Cultural Access Consortium and Bay State Council of the Blind Publication  Contents About This Guide Introduction What is Audio Description? Why AudioDescribe Theatre? Four Perspectives Brief Chronology of Audio Description Services Audio Description Education StepbyStep Program Plan Resource Appendices Audio Description Icons Program Book Insert and Lobby Sign Describer Contract Equity Authorization Excerpt from a Description Script Glossary of Terms About This Guide The intended audience for this guide includes staff members of performing arts organizations, especially producing theatre companies. Staff directly responsible for running and maintaining an audio description program, such as access coordinators, education and outreach personnel, or audience services personnel, will find this guide particularly useful. Those with a general interest in accessibility in the arts, audience development, or audio description as a potential vocation can also benefit from this text. How to Use this Guide The information in this guide is designed to be comprehensive, but we recognize that it may seem daunting when approached in its entirety. We therefore encourage you to focus on sections that will be most helpful to you and your specific circumstances. Below is a synopsis of each section. What is Audio Description? defines audio description in a theatre setting and outlines both the role of the describers and the main points of the description process. Why AudioDescribe Theatre? Four Perspectives presents the importance of audio description from the point of view of four individuals: a member of the blindness community, an audio describer, a producer from a theatre serving multicultural and intergenerational audiences, and an education and outreach director from a professional regional theatre comp