Magan Harms Wins Audio Description Award
Congratulations to MindsEye Arts and Culture Coordinator Magan Harms! She is the 2021 recipient of the American Council of the Blind (ACB) Audio Description Achievement Award for an individual in the field of performing arts. This is one of only nine awards given each year by the ACB Audio Description Project that honors “individuals and/or organizations for outstanding contributions to the establishment and/or continued development of significant audio description programs in each of three areas: media, performing arts, and museums.”
Magan provided audio description for Metro Theater Company’s productions of Jacked! and The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show.
We asked Magan about the recent award and she shared that she was grateful for the MindsEye staff and audio description team, the audio description patrons, and community partners. Also, she is looking for volunteers! If you are interested in becoming an audio description volunteer for MindsEye, Magan is offering a virtual audio description training in September. Please contact Magan at mharms@mindseyeradio.org for details.
MindsEye commented: “As Arts & Culture Coordinator for MindsEye, Magan is tasked with ensuring a rich landscape of audio description offerings in the St. Louis metro area encompassing both Missouri and Illinois suburbs. Under her direction, the Audio Description Program of MindsEye has expanded its presence while developing new methods of reaching patrons alongside better ways of measuring patron satisfaction and the impact of services on the community.”
”When the pandemic shuttered arts venues in March 2020, the St. Louis region’s audio description offerings dwindled to zero. Knowing that the people who depend on audio description for entertainment were now isolated in their homes, Magan worked to shift programming to virtual offerings. To do this, she developed new techniques for making audio description available outside the standard live broadcast from within a theater.”
Sample of Magan’s work on the audio description version of Jacked!
Learn more about audio description with Magan Harms—including how she sees the world differently after practicing audio transcription for many years and how audio description training crossovers to other aspects of life.