Today is Helen Keller’s birthday. She would be 137 years old today. And I am thinking that she would be amazed at the technological advances we all take for granted today. Things too myriad to mention although I will mention one: screen readers. Screen readers that enable people who cannot see to use the Internet, read books, magazines and documents and to share more fully in our common culture. Screen readers that I hope will be making this blog accessible. So I am also thinking that this is a good day to launch this blog.
In this space, I will be sharing as some of the descriptions of people, places and things that I have written as well as some of my experiences an audio describer. For now, it is my intent to post on a weekly basis. A description of the photograph at the top of this page is below.
The photograph at the top of this post shows the back of a seated woman, seen from the waist up. She sits, in the center of the photograph, within a darkened rectangle beneath a red swag with gold fringe and above a gently curved railing high above rows of red velvet seats. A light from above highlights her white hair, bare shoulder and back of her dark blue top. The white glow of the corner of a small screen is seen to her left, below her shoulder and above the railing. The rectangular opening fills the right half of the space beneath the swag with its five ruched or gathered sections. Red panels fill the left half. There are two square columns to the right of the darkened rectangle where the woman sits. They have gilding on their framework as well as the scrolling details at their capitals and their square bases. Gracing the arched frame over the scalloped red swag above the box where the woman sits is more gilding. Another smaller swag arches over the narrow opening between the two columns.
Below the booth where the woman sits, a curved railing with vertical lozenge shaped cutouts. The lozenge-shaped cutouts are surrounded by more gilding and resemble block Os. The railing is divided wider, plainer panels into sections of three Os. There are three full sections visible.
Below the railing, a wedge of steep rows of empty red velvet theater seats rises from the lower left corner to fill most of the lower half of the picture. A small triangular area of gold fills the lower left from the corner up to the horizontal line of the bottom of the railing.
The walls, panels and swagging all have a busy scrolling pattern of gold on a red background. It is barely discernible on the swags with their series of shallow U-shaped folds or the wall beneath the railing where a trick of the light and the proximity of the solid red seat make it appear more gold than red but can be clearly seen in the wash of light in the narrow passageway between the square columns in the upper right.
eyeDESCRIBE 