The Wizard of Oz as imagined by a girl who is blind
by Beth
Emily
Did you happen to catch that adorable Emily’s Oz commercial during Sunday’s Academy Awards presentation? Seven-year-old Emily has been blind since birth, and Emily’s Oz is about what she sees when she watches The Wizard of Oz™. The ad touts TV technology for people who are blind, and it features Emily describing how she envisions the characters in her favorite movie.
I am blind, too, and I sat with my sighted husband on the couch during the Oscars Sunday night and enjoyed Emily’s Oz right along with him, thanks to the efforts of companies like Comcast, who are creating opportunities for people like me.
Easter Seals’ corporate Partner Comcast has been hard at work over the past few years to make their products and services accessible to all. Take their new talking guide, for instance –it’s a new feature on the X1 platform that reads aloud selections like program titles, network names and time slots. DVR and On Demand settings, too! Blind users have the freedom to independently explore and navigate thousands of shows and movies – something that can be very difficult otherwise.
Many of us with visual impairments love film and television, we just don’t always have the opportunity to experience Hollywood to its fullest. I’m grateful to Comcast for its efforts, and hope this blog post about the talking guide increases awareness of this new technology among as many people as possible – the talking TV guide brings us one step closer to making entertainment just as compelling, captivating and fun for people with a visual disability as it is for others.
If you missed the ad during the Academy Awards presentation, you can find Emily’s Oz here. Robert Redford does the voiceover, and you can opt for video description, too.