Today I received a call from Elicia at the Superior Alliance for Independent Living in Marquette. She's helping someone make a digital story who wants to show it to the Commission for Blind. They'll need to add audio descriptions to make the video accessible. We talked about adding a voice track with the descriptions in Audacity to the main narration and music tracks. Then export the project with the 3 tracks as a .wav to import into PhotoStory, which only allows one sound file to be imported. They'll need to do two versions of the video, one with and one without audio description. I suggested they use a different person's voice than the narrator for the description. They'll also need to be sure there are enough pauses in the main narration to insert the descriptions.

I sent her some resources on descriptive video I found on the web:

Audio Description (AD) is the descriptive narration of key visual elements of live theatre, television, movies, and other media to enhance their enjoyment by consumers who are blind or have low vision. AD is the insertion of audio explanations and descriptions of the settings, characters, and action taking place in such media, when such information about these visual elements is not offered in the regular audio presentation. http://www.adinternational.org/

Guidelines for Audio Description:
http://www.adinternational.org/guidelines.html

Samples:
http://www.adinternational.org/samples.html

I've been wanting to add audio description for sometime. While I've done some research to learn about them, I just haven't had or made the time to do it. Ideally I'd like to have a player on our web page that would play both open and closed captions and open or closed audio descriptions. Though I found a player that should do this, I just don't have the technical knowledge and skills needed to include it on our web page. I hope to find someone who can help me with this! (If you know a resource, please let me know!)

Long Time, addition

Also:

One more thing I forgot to add! I presented about the Many Faces One Voice project in June at the 1st Annual Peer Specialist Conference "Recovery Hope & Healing: Living Longer - Living Stronger." The presentation was very well received. As part of this, I developed a resource list which added some links about Storytelling and Recovery:

• “I think that my recovery began the moment I dared look back on my life. Until then, there had been only one official story. An essential part of recovery is to look back at what has happened to you and to make your own story about it. In fact, you rewrite your history such that it suits you. You claim right of ownership over your own expe­riences. What is important is that you and no one else, give meaning to what has happened.” -http://akmhcweb.org/recovery/LifeAfterPsychiatry.htm\


• "…everyone has a victim narrative, and you need to tell it and know you’ve been heard before you can move on to becoming a survivor or hero. Victim narratives are not helpful if you never move on from narrating them; if you remain permanently stuck in the victim’s role.”-From the blog A Storied Career http://tinyurl.com/storycareer


• Northern CMH Photobiography Project – DVD: To See What I See: The Stigma of Mental Illness http://tinyurl.com/toseewhatIsee


• Confessions of a non-compliant patient - By Judi Chamberlin http://www.power2u.org/articles/recovery/confessions.html


• Recovery Stories from the National Empowerment Center: http://tinyurl.com/power2ustories


• The Potential Role of Life-Writing Therapy in Facilitating ‘Recovery’ for Those with Mental Illness -http://tinyurl.com/n2ve8c


• Nonprofit storytelling—beware of impact stories that don’t link to public policy - http://tinyurl.com/nonprofitstorytelling

Long Time!

I realize good intentions aside, this is the first update in a quite a while! Not too much going on but the project is still happening, slower without the grant funding. Here's just a quick summary of recent activity:

• Melinda Haus Johnson, Theresa Squires, Laura Hall and I presented at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit this July. The title was "Our Pride, Your Pity" and was about changing how people with disabilities are portrayed the media. Both Melinda and Laura showed their stories as part of this presentation.
• I started a class at Community Connections in Benton Harbor this summer. It looks like we'll be finishing at least 3 stories over the next few weeks.
• We've been providing some consultation and technical assistance to staff at SAIL in Marquette as part of their mini grant from the Michigan Developmental Disabilities Council to the Alger Marquette RICC. I am returning in the next month or so to help them get videos posted on the web and talk about ways to help people use their videos in advocacy efforts.
  
• We had some discussions with a group in the Traverse City area about helping with a class for people to tell stories about recovery from mental illness but the funding was a barrier here (so far).
  

So a quick update, hope to get more videos posted soon!

Digital Story Telling Update!

Though the funding from the AT&T Excelerator Program ended, the Many Faces, One Voice Project continues! We are looking forward to new stories:

• The people I worked with at the Superior Alliance for Independent Living (SAIL) in Marquette are now teaching 24 school students who have disabilities to tell their stories.
  
  
• Norm Delisle showed some stories at the Recovery Council. As a result, we are talking with a group in Northern Lower Michigan about holding a class this spring.
  
  
• SAIL received a mini grant from the Developmental Disabilities Council to work with members of the Alger/Marquette RICC to create digital stories. They are working with the group now and we'll start classes in April.
  
  
• As a result of attending our presentation at the Michigan Rehabilitation Conference, a RICC in Bay county is planning to create digital stories to use in their advocacy efforts.

We continue to increase our skills and build our capacity to do this work.

• We are exploring the use of netbooks to create stories. The cost is comparatively low and since we use free and web-based software, these mini laptops might be able to handle the work.
  
  
• We've found a flash video player that can play open and closed descriptive video, but this isn't available on You Tube or other sites. We continue to look for ways to add descriptive video to the stories. We need technical support to add the player to our website while we advocate with others to increase accessibility.
  

Check back! There's been a surge of new interest in the project and we'll keep you posted!

DD Council is holding public forums

UCP Michigan and MDRC are hosting public forums for the Michigan Developmental Disabilities Council. The forums are to find out what people with developmental disabilities and family members believe is most important.

The Council spends roughly $1.8 million every year on grants for capacity building, systems change, and advocacy programming. The forums will help the Council decide how to spend the $9 million in its next 5-year plan.

At these forums, instead of 1 person at a time speaking from a podium, people sit Café style at round tables.

The forums will be held in 6 locations around the state. They are:
Flint – February 24, 2009
Southeast Michigan – March 19, 2009
Plainwell – April 28, 2009
Midland – May 5, 2009
Gaylord – May 20, 2009
Marquette – June 11, 2009

For times and locations, or to register, go to:
http://www.copower.org/ohreg/index.php

Questions? Contact Glenn Ashley
Program Coordinator, "Our Hopes for the Future”
United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan
phone: 517 203-1200
Ashley @ ucpmichigan.org

New Video Posted!

We've finished more stories! Tia Van's story "The Birthmark" is now up on our website! More will be posted soon.

The storytellers would love to hear from you. Please go to their Google video pages and leave your comments. (The title of the video is linked to the Google video page.)

Featured Storyteller: "Proud and Powerful"

Interview with Storyteller: Melinda Haus Johnson

Why did you tell this story?

Disability pride is a concept that is new to a lot of people. I thought that hearing a personal story relating to disability pride might help others see that it really isn't some far-fetched idea. Rather it is something that all of us with disabilities can have and need to have to truly feel liberated as individuals and as community.

What do you want people to learn or question after seeing your story?

Disability pride is unique to each individual. There is no right or wrong form of pride or way to express it. I want people to think about their perceptions of disability and really question what disability pride might mean for them and how their life might change if they had disability pride.

How will or have you used this story for advocacy?

I have used it with presentations and it always sparks great discussions. It is much more of an educational tool to help break down attitudinal barriers that people with disabilities face. Every time I have use it, a different quote or picture seems to stick with each person that watches it - and I hope years down the road they can say, "I remember that story...."

Tell us a little about the experience of creating a digital story. (Would you do it again?, was it worth it?)

Yes, Yes, Yes it was worth it and Yes, Yes, Yes I would do it again. It is like taking a trip down memory lane as you sort through pictures to use and soak up all emotions that come with them. It also gets your creative juices going learning all the editing techniques and playing around with different music and sound effects.