Access to the Arts
VSA Ohio partners with local, state-wide, and national partners to provide high-quality, accessible theater opportunities to individuals with disabilities.
Over the past several years VSAO has partnered with the Phoenix Theater for Children to bring students from the Ohio State School for the Blind and the Ohio School for the Deaf to the Vern Riffe Center in Columbus for live, audio-described and ASL interpreted theater performances.
In 2010 VSA Ohio received a Challenge America Fast-Track Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support accessible theater performances in Sylvania, Elyria, and Columbus, Ohio.
The VSA and Kennedy Center co-produced musical theater production of Nobody’s Perfect, based on the book by Marlee Matlin and Doug Cooney, travelled to the Stocker Arts Center at Lorain County Community College in Elyria and The Franciscan Center at Lourdes College in Sylvania. An accessible performance of the world premier of Pierce to the Soul was presented at the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education’s Virtuoso Awards Ceremony in Columbus. The grant supported the attendance and travel to performances by underserved students, accessibility accommodations, educational components, and production costs.
VSA Ohio’s accessible theater opportunities
are funded by
Make your organization or program
more accessible
There are many resources available to organizations seeking to make their programming, space, and hiring practices more accessible.
GENERAL ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION
- E-Michigan Deaf and Hard of Hearing People Communication Tips
- United Cerebral Palsy: Interaction and Etiquette Tips
- National Technical Institute for the Deaf: Deaf Culture
- ADA Online Audio Conferences
- 2010 Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability Conference Brochure (pdf)
- Arts Access Made Easy (pdf)
- Accessibility Planning and Resource Guide for Cultural Administrators
- Design for Accessibility: A Cultural Administrator’s Handbook
CAPTIONING
- Open Captioning for Theater: Basic Reference Guide (pdf)
- Nobody's Perfect: A play performed in both spoken English and American Sign Language (ASL)
ASSISTED LISTENING DEVICES (ALDs)
- Assistive Listening Devices for People with Hearing Loss: A Guide for Performing Arts Settings (pdf)
- Audio Description Coalition
- The Audio Description Project
- Audio Description Associates
INTERPRETERS
- National Technical Institute for the Deaf: Cued Speech
- National Technical Institute for the Deaf: Oral Interpreters (pdf)
LEGAL
- 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, html version
- 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, pdf version
- Guidance for 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, html version
- Guidance for Exchange and Medicaid Information Technology (IT) Systems.
- Find your local or regional chapter of Hearing Loss Assn. of America (formerly Self Help for the Hard of Hearing-SHHH)
- Marketing to the disability community checklist
- Reaching out to the disability community
- Oregon Business Leadership Network: Developing customer base of individuals with disabilities
- Ticket Policy Summary: 2002 National Center on Accessibility Survey of Ticket and Accommodation Policies