Making your communications and programming attractive and useable by everyone is as important as making your facilities accessible.

Print Readability Resources

Graphics Artists Guild Foundation
www.gag.org/resources
The Graphic Artists Guild Foundation has the universal accessibility symbols on their web site and you can download them at no cost. These symbols let people know what you can provide.

The Lighthouse
1-800-829-0500 (Voice).
www.lighthouse.org
The Lighthouse has two very good pamphlets on print legibility and color contrast.

Assistive Listening Devices

League for the Hard of Hearing
www.lhh.org
The League's web site has a list of manufacturers and distributors of listening devices.

Lions Hearing Conservation Society of District 20-Y2
The Lions Club has a program whereby they will loan FM listening systems and other assistive hearing devices to non-profits at no cost. Here are phone numbers (all voice) in seven upstate areas:
Albany: Madison Hearing Center, (518) 465-6585
Glens Falls: Glens Falls Association for the Hearing Impaired, (518) 761-0554
Gloversville: Gloversville Hearing Rehabilitation Services, (518) 725-2620
Rotterdam: Better Hearing Services, (518) 356-5911
Saratoga: Saratoga Speech and Hearing Center, (518) 584-0578
Troy: Hearing, Speech & Balance Center of Troy, (518) 272-7323
Utica: Resource Center for Independent Living, (315) 797-4642

Report to the US Access Board
www.hearingresearch.org
This site will give you the final report on assistive systems that was made to the US Access Board.

Self Help for Hard of Hearing People
www.shhh.org
This is a comprehensive site to get an overview of assistive listening devices, descriptions of different kinds of systems, a publication list and much more.

TDD and TTY
Your phone company can provide information on phones that can be used by the deaf and hard of hearing, and on the relay service in New York.

Audio Description

Audio description provides narration of the visual elements of theater, film, and video during pauses in spoken portions. Audio description is very useful with theater and film presentations and for museum exhibits.

There are several kinds of captioning: closed, open and real time. Many television programs are closed captioned and a control on the television allows the captions to be seen. Open captioning appears at the bottom of video or film no matter what technology you use to show it. Captioning is done after a film or video is edited. Funding is available for NYSCA grantees toward the costs of open captioning through The Theatre Development Fund TAP PLUS program. (212) 398-7408

C2 (Caption Coalition), Inc.
(917) 733-3515
www.ncicap.org
C2 does real-time captioning of performances, meetings, etc. They can be reached at: The National Captioning Center 

The Caption Center
The Caption Center is the world's first captioning agency and a non-profit service of the WGBH Educational Foundation.

Sign Language Interpretation

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Interpreting Services (DHIS)
www.dhisnyc.com (for interpreters in New York City)
Sign language interpretation uses a language called American Sign Language (ASL).

Hands On
www.HandsOn.org
A New York based service organization that provides sign language interpreted performances of theatrical productions, a monthly calendar of events for the deaf community and consultation services for arts organizations and consumers.
New York State Office of Advocate for Persons with Disabilities

Braille, Tactile Drawings and Computer Technology

American Printing House for the Blind
www.aph.org
In addition to resource information and product catalogs on its web site, the American Printing House for the Blind will make Braille, tactile or audio versions of materials.

Baruch College Computer Center for Visually Impaired People (CCVIP)
(212) 802-2140 (Voice)
spkbb@cunyvm.cuny.edu
www.baruch.cuny.edu/ccvip
CCVIP trains people on computers with assistive technology, maintains computer laboratories, acts as an information resource on assistive technology, creates tactile drawings (tactile drawings are high definition raised line drawings), and has a Braille production service. They also have a free open house once a month.

Hotkey Systems
(718) 335-1788 (voice)
Makes Braille versions of publications from one page to books.