Sunday, February 15

Disney adds description

Greetings. I received the following information a few days ago in my email Inbox. This announcement sounds really cool, and gives me yet another reason to visit the Disney parks. What's neat is it looks like there's a benefit for both the blind and the sighted, as far as the descriptive GPS system goes. This has been and continues to be one of the challenges of making mainstream products accessible: if we can show the benefit to the grater population of the "able bodied," then it will become that much more accepted among people, and be that much more accessible to those that need the accommodation. Enjoy.

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Disney audio description and GPS coming soon to the theme parks

Hi all,
I am a Disney Cast member working for the Disney Travel Company here
in Anaheim California.
Today I had the opportunity to help evaluate a new project Disney
will soon make available in their Anaheim and Florida theme parks.
Later this year, the Disneyland resort will have audio descriptions
on their attractions.
Florida already has some in place.
Today we evaluated whinnie the Pooh. Disneyland is also working on
The Finding nemo Submarine Attraction and Pirates.
Guests would put a deposit down on a receiver which is attached to a
lanyard. They would have a headset on and as they walked up to the
cue of the attraction and
the description would begin.

Its based on each segment of the attraction having frequencies which
would trigger based upon where the guest was at any moment.

WGBH wrote the dialog and recorded it and now Disney is working on
the syncing of the dialog with the attraction recordings.

Its very impressive and they did an excellent job based upon the
Whinnie the Pooh attraction we evaluated today.

Disney World already has this available and later this year or early
next year, lanyards will also have Gps receivers in Disney World so
that guests in the park can tell where
they are as they move through the park.
Disneyland will also have it shortly after that time period.
This would be of great benefit to blind as well as sighted guests.

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