George Mason course brings expertise from audio description pioneer

sbrown79 — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 15:26:32 +0000

George Mason course brings expertise from audio description pioneer sbrown79 Tue, 10/20/2026 - 11:26

In This Story

For some, accessibility in the arts is a question of philosophy. 91�� adjunct professor Joel Snyder approaches the idea more literally.

Snyder is a pioneer in the niche industry of arts audio description—the process of translating the arts into spoken language, making theater, film, dance, and other art forms more accessible for people who are blind or have low vision.

Joel Snyder using a stenomask to audio describe a show. Photo provided.

Snyder has made that skill the center of a new audio description course in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA). 

He said George Mason stood out as the right place for the first-ever semester-long, for-credit audio description course in the United States because of the university’s existing commitment to accessible arts programming and its willingness to invest in the future of the field.

“I knew there was an interest at George Mason in making the arts events even more accessible,” Snyder said. “I’m thrilled that the university is forging ahead with courses like this."

For Snyder, the class is part of a broader vision for how accessibility should be understood on campuses and beyond: because audio description also enhances the experience of neurodivergent viewers. “It helps people on the autism spectrum, with ADHD, and it helps people who are learning a new language. Audio description builds literacy,” Snyder said.  
   
The course, CVPA 399 Audio Description for the Arts , connects students to a growing archive of audio description history and practice. Snyder donated more than 100 boxes of scripts, recordings, papers, and other materials to University Libraries in order to create a foundation for the Dr. Joel Snyder Audio Description Archive, a first-ever university-based collection of audio description historical materials and production elements. 

Snyder said he hopes the archive will be further digitized and made available to anybody around the world.

“These records provide a solid base to grow the primary source record on the development of audio description and thus accessibility from the last quarter of the 20th century to the present,” said Lynn Eaton, director, Special Collections Research Center. “Dr. Snyder’s donated collection will help current and future historians and researchers with essential documentation of his work and others in helping to make arts more broadly available.” 

There are nine students in the course, including three students who tune in from North Carolina, Texas, and Missouri respectively.

For Betsy Yancey, who has worked as the audience services manager at George Mason’s Center for the Arts (CFA) for 24 years, the course offers a direct connection between the classroom and her day-to-day work.

Betsy Yancey (left) with her former student employees at the Center for the Arts.

“Part of my job is to coordinate access services for our performances—audio description, ASL interpretation, and captioning,” Yancey said. “I’m taking this course because I want to know more about [access services] and potentially be a backup in case our regular audio describer, Ermyn King, is unavailable.”

Her work at CFA includes coordinating with audio describers weeks before a performance, sharing scripts and rehearsal materials, and ensuring patrons can access show information in advance through large-print and screen-reader-friendly materials.

This season, more than 20 CFA performances include audio description, spanning productions in the School of Theater, School of Dance, and School of Music, as well as the professional artists series.

Yancey said she hopes the course encourages students and art professionals to think about accessibility as part of the creative process and not something added at the end.

“It would be great if all of our performing and visual arts departments as well as the companies that we present create the audio description script as they're working on their art because they know the [creator’s] intent,” Yancey said.  

“That's something that the audio describer may not know depending on how much access they've been given to the materials.”

She also sees opportunities for George Mason to expand audio description into digital spaces, including Mason Arts Amplified, the university’s digital arts platform.

"We have a college-wide commitment to making the arts accessible to more people, and Joel Snyder is one of the true founders of a key element of this mission, audio description,” said CVPA Dean Rick Davis. “His passion for this mission is stronger than ever after more than four decades of pioneering research and practice, and we're honored to have him with us."

Marybeth Haneline at the Kreeger Theater at Arena Stage audio describing CrazySexyCool: The TLC Musical. Photo provided.

Marybeth Haneline, who is auditing the course through George Mason’s Senior Citizen Tuition Wavier program, brings another perspective to the course.

She is now in her third season as a volunteer with the Metropolitan Washington Ear audio description program, a program Snyder spearheaded in the 1980s. Haneline, who has audio described dozens of shows, said the class will allow her to apply what she’s learning to live performance. 

For her final project, Haneline plans to audio describe Frida: A Self Portrait at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., where she is also currently enrolled in the Salon Series, an interactive, behind-the-scenes program.

Haneline plans to use the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System, a comprehensive movement framework, to audio describe the show.

“It's really the perfect show for this project,” said Haneline. “The solo performer is trained in the Suzuki Method and there are these movement pieces that provide space for me to develop a script and do something useful.”

Snyder hopes students leave the course with practical skills they can use in professional settings.

“I hope they build the skillset of writing, voicing, and audio editing descriptions for professional work,” Snyder said. “Audio describers, the writers, and the voice talents are in great demand.”

He also hopes audio description continues to expand across George Mason, including in visual art spaces. 

“If there's an art exhibit on campus, there should be audio descriptions of those images available,” Snyder said.

As the course gains momentum after several semesters of planning, Snyder sees George Mason as part of a much larger shift—one that treats access as a creative and educational responsibility.

Topics

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)