[Missouri-l] Fw: [CCB-L] Walt Disney World Device's audio feature helps blind visualize rides

[Terrie Arnold]

for all of you going to the mouse 
land in florida
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Gassman" 
<johngassman at roadrunner.com>
To: "CCB List" 
<ccb-l at googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 10:10 
PM
Subject: [CCB-L] Walt Disney World 
Device's audio feature helps blind 
visualize rides


>
>         Hi,
> thhis is a similar service I 
> evaluated here at disneyland a 
> couple of
> months ago.
>
> John
>
> Walt Disney World Device's audio 
> feature helps blind visualize 
> rides
> -- OrlandoSentinel.com
> Heard but not seen at Disney: 
> Device helps blind visualize 
> rides
> Disney adds audio for the blind 
> to attraction device that has
> captions for deaf patrons
> Jason Garcia | Sentinel Staff 
> Writer
> April 16, 2009
>
> "Audio description" is the 
> latest feature of a proprietary, 
> wireless
> system Disney initially created 
> for disabled guests. (WALT 
> DISNEY
> WORLD / April 15, 2009)
>
>
>
> Walt Disney World has rolled out 
> a first-of-its-kind service 
> designed
> to let even blind guests "see" 
> its famed attractions.
>
> Called "audio description," the 
> service provides visually 
> impaired
> vacationers with a narrative 
> depiction of the scenes that 
> unfold as
> they move through rides such as 
> the Magic Kingdom's Haunted 
> Mansion
> or Pirates of the Caribbean.
>
> It is the latest feature added 
> to a proprietary, wireless 
> system that
> Disney World initially developed 
> to help disabled guests. The 
> system
> also includes features for deaf 
> and hard-of-hearing guests, such 
> as
> amplified sound and hand-held 
> captions.
>
> "We want to make our rich 
> stories available to everyone," 
> said Greg
> Hale, vice president of 
> worldwide safety and 
> accessibility for Walt
> Disney Parks and Resorts.
>
> But it has also become something 
> of a side business for Disney.
>
> Through a three-year contract 
> that was recently renewed, 
> Disney
> licenses the technology to 
> Houston-based Softeq Development 
> Corp.,
> which markets the system to 
> everyone from other tourist 
> attractions
> to timber companies.
>
> The system relies on a series of 
> remote, infrared sensors and a
> durable, hand-held device 
> initially built to withstand 
> drops to the
> ground, rain and other liquid 
> intrusion, and all manner of 
> other
> punishment dished out during a 
> day in a theme park.
>
> Customers include the World of 
> Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta, 
> where a
> former general manager and the 
> current attractions manager are 
> former
> Disney World executives, and the 
> Hall at Patriot Place in 
> Foxborough,
> Mass., a hall of fame dedicated 
> to the New England Patriots 
> football team.
>
> Both of those attractions, like 
> Disney World, use the system to
> provide services to deaf and 
> blind visitors.
>
> But other types of companies are 
> also interested in buying the
> hand-held unit itself, which 
> Softeq sells as the rugged 
> "Durateq."
>
> Trey Litel, Softeq's vice 
> president of sales and 
> marketing, said
> Softeq markets the device to 
> forestry and oil companies,
> industrial-safety businesses and 
> even restaurants interested in
> point-of-sale systems that allow 
> servers to run credit-card
> transactions right at their 
> customers' tables.
>
> Disney earns royalties on the 
> software, which it has patented, 
> and on
> the hand-held devices, which it 
> developed jointly with Softeq.
>
> Both companies declined to say 
> how much the royalties amount 
> to, but
> the potential market is 
> significant: For example, Softeq 
> hopes to
> cultivate clients from among 
> more than 14,000 museums across 
> the country.
>
> Disney first introduced its 
> version of the hand-held device 
> in 2005,
> but it took company engineers 
> much longer to perfect the
> audio-description feature. The 
> descriptions must be perfectly
> synchronized to avoid 
> interrupting an attraction's 
> primary narration.
>
> Engineers had to make various 
> changes along the way. Tests 
> revealed,
> for instance, that blind guests 
> were uncomfortable using the
> original, two-ear headphones 
> because they depend on their 
> sense of
> sound to guide themselves 
> around. So Disney replaced the 
> headphone
> with a single earpiece, which 
> allows a guest to leave the 
> other ear
> unobstructed.
>
> The system's narration also had 
> to be carefully selected and 
> produced
> to distinguish it from the other 
> audio encountered in a Disney 
> attraction.
>
> For example, in the Haunted 
> Mansion, where all riders listen 
> to a
> ghoulishly themed male voice, 
> the audio description produced 
> by the
> hand-held device is provided by 
> a female voice speaking in even 
> tones.
>
> Disney rolled out the audio 
> descriptions earlier this 
> spring, just
> before the Easter rush. The 
> company says it is now working 
> on
> expanding the service to include 
> descriptions of outdoor areas in 
> its
> theme parks.
>
>
>
>                 John Gassman
> mailto:johngassman at roadrunner.com
> Recognition Of The Problem is 
> 51% Of The Solution
>
>
> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
> 74 years of serving the blind of 
> California, we are the 
> California Council of the Blind.
>
> You received this message 
> because you are subscribed to 
> the Google Groups "California 
> Council of the Blind" group.
> To post to this group, send 
> email to CCB-L at googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, 
> send email to 
> CCB-L-unsubscribe at googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this 
> group at 
> http://groups.google.com/group/CCB-L?hl=en
> -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
>
>