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Visual Services and Harkins Bricktown Theatre Screen Film with Narration for Audience with Vision Impairments

08.09.07: News story by KSBI in Oklahoma City. To open the video in Windows Media Player, click here.



“The Ultimate Gift” video transcript:

Monica Price, reporter, KSBI-TV Channel 52, Oklahoma City

…the blind, making it difficult to enjoy some of the things you take for granted, such as catching a flick, but today a special screening of a movie was held right here in Oklahoma City, a movie meant to provide entertainment specifically to the blind.

The movie is called "The Ultimate Gift" and it's not your typical movie. The film was also made to accommodate those who are blind. [Not in video stream - A special screening of the movie was held at Harkins Theatres in Bricktown.]

Jim Stovall says, "We do about a thousand hours a year of programming that's accessible for blind and visually impaired people. We take TV shows and movies and we add descriptive segments in between the dialogue."

Jim Stovall co-produced the movie. He's the President of a Tulsa-based company called Narrative Television Network. He knows first hand what it’s like, he’s also blind.

Descriptive video can best be described as a play-by-play. A commentator tells you what's happening since you can't always see what's going on in front of you.

Stovall says, "People can hear what they can't see."

In Oklahoma, 17,000 people are blind and experts expect that number to double by 2020. The hope is more movie-makers will use descriptive video in the future.

"My goal would be that everything on television and most movies would be accessible to the 13 million blind and visually impaired people across the country," says Stovall.

"The Ultimate Gift" is described as a romantic comedy and an inspirational story. It also stars Oklahoma native James Garner.