President and Founder, Audio Description Associates-jsnyder@audiodescribe.com
www.audiodescribe.com
One of the first audio describers, Joel Snyder began describing theater events and media in 1980. Each year, his abilities as a describer make hundreds of performing arts events accessible to visually impaired audience members; he develops audio described tours for major museums throughout the United States through his own company Audio Description Associates.
As Director of Described Media for the National Captioning Institute, Joel led a staff that produced description for nationally broadcast films and network series including “Sesame Street” broadcasts and DVDs.
Internationally, he introduced description techniques in Japan, Israel, Romania, Spain, Portugal, Lithuania, Denmark, Norway and Finland; conducted audio description workshops in London, Prague, and St. Petersburg, Russia; and trained describers for a first-ever audio description program in Sofia, Bulgaria in August/September 1998. Most recently, he developed a team of describers for the second annual Moscow International Disability Film Festival as the result of intensive seminars conducted in Russia. Mr. Snyder is the Founding Chair of the Steering Committee and a current board member of the US-based service organization Audio Description International.
