Last week on the local news, KCBS Channel 2 in Los Angeles, feature reporter Mike Castalucci did a short bit on spoken captioning for the blind. How would I get in touch with people who are looking for persons willing to speak captions, as in TV shows and movies? I made an audio recording once of Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie, in which I spoke, with the audio cassette recorder running all the way through while I watched the movie on video. And I routinely do this with other stuff I view on TV, making audio recordings so I can play them back in the car, or on the bus with a Walkman, and know, without the picture, what the action is on the screen.
There is something like it, but you might ask these folks:
http://www.captionmax.com/pages/Services/SV_ad.html
"Audio Description (sometimes called Video Description) is a new technology for video and television that allows blind and visually impaired people to access a program?s visual content.
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Thanx
Where I live [Australian Workers Paradise] we have 2RPH - Radio Print Handicapped. The shows are predominantly people reading the newspaper, news and social magazines out loud. Not just intended for the blind, but anybody with reading difficulties. Also a reasonably good accompaniment to driving.
Many of the readers were regular volunteers, and quite a few actors between gigs. Getting a few smartarse young actors reading the gossip column from Who is excellent.
Hopefully there ill be some form of local equivalent.
There are various services like that in the US, some streaming online: The WKAR Radio Reading Service (streaming here), run by Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, is one example.
The magic phrase to Google is “radio reading service”, with or without quotes; the International Association of Audio Information Services has a locator as well, including a list of streaming radio reading services.