The Experience of Studying Hebrew as a Student Who is Blind
Sarah Blake is a licensed minister with the Church of God (Anderson, IN). She is available to provide biblical teaching, ministry seminars, or music ministry for your church. Hear samples from some of her presentations and contact her for booking information.
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The twenty-first century is often referred to as the postmodern era. One of the halmarks of this period is the extensive use of video and images to communicate. It is widely believed that images draw the attention of a person more powerfully in this generation than do words. In some cases, images alone are expected to communicate the message. The disadvantage of this practice in worship is that it excludes potential members of the congregation: those who cannot see the images.
What is the most workable solution? Sadly, some people who are blind have endured stoically after church leaders have suggested that they "enjoy the music that goes with the video." Others have asked a person sitting nearby to attempt to describe the video, often with varying results depending on the person's ability to describe effectively.
Noticing the plight of a congregation member with deteriorating vision, Chris Hall asked me for feedback on some videos he had posted on YouTube. Since I myself am blind and have often experienced the problems I described above, I am in a position to provide him some feedback. The comments I provided for him may prove useful to others who use media in worship; and he has given permission for me to share the links to his videos along with my comments.
An ideal scenario for a blind person watching a movie is to have a description of the action that is going on added to the audio track. I have tried advocating for this in some churches but have been told that it would be distracting in the service. (I wonder: is a sign language interpreter also distracting?) another suggestion sometimes given to me is to rely on the person sitting near me for description. For numerous reasons, this is a very poor solution. The person may be a child, another blind person, someone who does not describe well, or someone who is so moved by the images that they are unable to describe. A final comment on video description in the church service is that sometimes it may not actually achieve the desired effect for a blind person that the image achieves for the sighted person. For some blind people, sound is the equivalent of image. Description should be used to augment the video where sound cannot provide detail. My suggestions here attempt to strike a happy medium and create a video that a blind person can follow with minimal intervention as well as one that speaks to the person in sound the way that it speaks to the sighted person in image.
Students volunteer at Target: Dayton begins with a good audio identifier introducing the video. Then music plays and there is video over the video. In the middle, the music backs down, and there is a brief segment in which the worship at Dayton is heard. My suggestion is to back the music down with the exception of the live worship segment and include some live audio over the music so that the sound of volunteering is heard. In addition, include some voiceover snippets from the volunteers providing brief one or two-sentence commentary on their experience.
Salem students attend convention is strictly video set to music. If this was played in a service without any introduction, I would not know what was being shown at all. If it was introduced, given my interest in the teens' experiences, I would want to hear their voices. Bring the volume of the music down to a good background level and let me hear the audio that goes with these images. Let me hear them laughing, singing, etc. Put in some voiceover with them talking about their experience. Make this a true documentary and not just a music video.
Sarah J. Blake