TheatreVision™© is an exciting new program making films accessible to the visually challenged. The concept of narration and description of motion pictures was created by Helen Harris, founding president of RP International (RPI), the leading non-profit organization in the United States fighting retinitis pigmentosa (RP). and other blinding, degenerative eye diseases. TheatreVision™© is a new process of incorporating a special soundtrack for feature films that runs concurrently with the dialogue of the picture. This track provides a "descriptive narration" of what is being shown on the screen, so that those without sight can still experience the wonderful medium of motion pictures. Over the next few years, plans call for these special narrative tracts to be heard via headsets in theaters all over the United States.

With the help and cooperation of many in the Hollywood community, the prototype for TheatreVision™© was created. The critically acclaimed smash, Paramount Pictures' Forrest Gump, was the first film to be completed in this format, making its TheatreVision™© debut before a visually challenged audience December 28. 1994, at the Cineplex Odeon/Fairfax Theater In L.A., and with a gala screening for the entertainment community February 21, 1995 at Paramount Studios.

This new film technique is anticipated to briny between 10 and 31 million visually impaired moviegoers into theaters. Many of Hollywood s top filmmakers have already created TheatreVision™© versions of their existing films. These specially formatted films are being made available to the unsighted through select neighborhood theaters, as well as through libraries, charitable organizations, special screenings and schools for the blind.

Among the movies already audio described through TheatreVision™© includes "Home for the Holidays","Batman Forever", "The American President", "Pocahantas", "The Truth About Cats and Dogs", "Little Women", "Flipper', Apollo 13", "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Mission Impossible", "Braveheart". "Schindler's List", "Twister", "Volcano", Disney's "Hercules", and TNTs "George Wallace".

TheatreVision™© complements RPI's existing program, AudioVision™ which provides audio-oriented, "visually challenged" versions of media ranging from cards to books.