Grantee Partner Spotlight

Think Outside the Vox

The Tactile Tour table was a creative highlight of the December 2024 Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC) performance of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Armed with costumes and props from the show, Ingrid O’Dell, Accessibility Coordinator from Think Outside the Vox (VOX), greeted guests with a chance to feel the damask fabric of a Victorian dress or the holly crown worn by the Ghost of Christmas Past. For Blind patrons in attendance, Ingrid described each of the textiles on the table, inviting guests to pick up and graze the pieces while she gave context about each item’s place in the storyline.

Other members of the VOX team made sure theatergoers had show programs in braille or screen reader-friendly digital formats, as well as audio description (AD) headsets, and they greeted patrons in the lobby in ASL or sight-guided them to concessions or their seats. Through the headsets, professional audio describers provided live, play-by-play, physical details of actions and characters on the stage throughout the performance. Much as a language interpreter or sportscaster inserts commentary in the pauses, audio describers find gaps in the dialogue where they can add lines such as: “An elderly white man wearing a silk top hat and tailcoat enters from the left, ambling with a cane.”

The VOX team also made sure patrons were comfortable, including reserved spaces for wheelchairs, collecting real-time suggestions, and helping coordinate rideshares pre- and post-show. ASL Vlogs and audio description wayfinding files were provided in advance and posted on social media by VOX and CSC. During the performance, an American Sign Language (ASL) team led by Sabrina Dennison, a Broadway-credited Director of Artistic Sign Language, (DASL) captured the storyline, characters, jokes, and singing visually in front of the stage. The ASL team even included a young Deaf-parented child signing for Tiny Tim.

“Three patrons made a point of thanking us and letting us know how much they appreciated the ‘top-notch’ AD and Tactile Tour,” says Samantha (Sam) Gould Kriveshko, who cofounded VOX with Christopher (Chris) Robinson.

The Tactile Tour table in the Cutler Majestic Theatre lobby featured Tiny Tim’s small wooden crutch, bits of lacy fabric worn by the ensemble, the crown of holly and golden leaves worn by the Ghost of Christmas Past, and an antler stick representing the Ghost of Christmas Future’s arm.

“It’s all part of an anti-ableist perspective,” comments Chris. “It means we make the effort to stop approaching everything as ableists, just as an anti-racist works to remove racism from their thinking.”

“We’re not just checking a box for compliance with disability laws anymore,” he continues. “It’s a paradigm shift. We’re covering the real experiences and impact of certain identities with disabilities through storytelling.”

Sam and Chris have both been working in accessibility in the arts for 20+ years. In addition to her work with VOX, Sam is President of the all-volunteer nonprofit Open Door Theater, which she describes as “an integrated disability joy space where we train actors, captioners, audio describers, and ASL interpreters in a community theater setting—like a test kitchen for how we want to bring arts access to the rest of the community.”

Since its founding in 1980, Open Door had a mission of inclusion of disabled cast members on stage but didn’t consider audience accommodations until 2006. Their music director that year was a SODA (sibling of a Deaf adult) who wanted to include ASL in the production. Sam consulted with Chris, a Broadway-credited expert ASL interpreter, and the two have collaborated ever since.

“Chris and I had been doing the consulting work for free, under the Open Door umbrella, for the longest time because we couldn’t not let it be done and leave patrons without accommodations,” says Sam. “Then about three years ago, we decided we needed to do it properly. So we incorporated a nonprofit, Think Outside the Vox, specifically for consulting with other arts organizations and creating opportunities for disabled artists. We got our first grant from The Lenny Zakim Fund in 2023, and that opened the door to other grants and much-needed nonprofit management training. The benefits from LZF are beyond monetary, the access to nonprofit management resources and professionals and the connections made through LZF have been game changing.”

“LZF really took a chance on us,” Chris adds. “Our mission is quite esoteric and hard to digest because of all of the things we’re doing. We were just a fledgling organization at that point, and having someone we could call for advice and questions was invaluable.”

In 2022, VOX received an innovation grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council to add greater cultural competence and higher quality access by training Blind/Low-vision Audio Describers while also incorporating BIPOC, AAPI, LGBTQIA+, disabled and neurodivergent community members. Upon completion of training, members of the AD cohorts trained by VOX start work in the field immediately and are mentoring the next group of emerging AD professionals. VOX is currently replicating this project in the Artistic Sign Language Space with Deaf professionals and emerging BIPOC ASL interpreters, thanks to an urgent response grant from Haymarket People’s Fund. 

Three “Voxers” in purple Vox shirts and nametags take a selfie at the Everyone250 Arts and Culture Summit (Embrace Boston) with Loretta Greco from The Huntington. From left to right: Vox Cofounder Christopher Robinson, an African-American man with black hair, medium locs, and a beard wears a purple Vox hat, smiling, with his arm around Cofounder Sam Gould, an Ashkenazi Jewish woman with salt and pepper hair in a bun. Audio Describer Maria Hendricks, a brown-skinned Afroindigenous woman with past shoulder-length braids with purple undertones wears a white patterned bandana, long dangly purple and white earrings, smiling big. Huntington Artistic Director Loretta Greco, a woman with long brown hair wears a white shirt, green blazer and jeans with a nametag, smiles and leans in.

“In 2024, we won a Performing Arts Award from the American Council for the Blind, for our innovation in Audio Description,” says Sam. “This work is truly changing the face of Audio Description in the Commonwealth, and in the sector as well, figuratively and literally. And it’s creating jobs. Amber Pearcy, for example, is a Blind consultant who quadrupled her income once we began emphasizing the importance of involving Blind experts in AD work. David Heard, a Black, single father and actor, wasn’t able to take a full run of a play because he had a toddler at home, but now he can do the bulk of the AD work at home and only has to be at the theater for three appearances for similar payscale.”

“We’ve made a lot of progress, but it’s still really challenging,” comments VOX Marketing & Communications Manager Olivia Reinebach. “Producers can be very protective about what show details they’re willing to share and don’t want to give information to interpreters ahead of time. We’re collaborating with directors to create pauses where descriptions can fit in and to get creative and embed access in the artistic landscape of a play. We’re also working hard to promote all these performances on the ArtsBoston All Access Calendar—another project VOX is creating and testing in partnership with Blind, Deaf, Neurodiverse, and disabled experts—which allows you to search events by ASL, captioning, or Audio Description availability. This free tool prioritizes accessibility and has the potential to increase disability patronage and ticket sales for all arts organizations in the state.”

“Meanwhile, we’re working with the Huntington Theatre to mentor audio describers, emerging ASL interpreters, ASL interpreters of color, and directors of artistic Sign Language who are Deaf professionals,” says Sam. “It’s really exciting.”


Think Outside the Vox is currently seeking in-kind donations of gift cards to cover job-related expenses such as hotels, meals, ride shares, and other transportation for arts accessibility professionals. VOX contractors face challenges when traveling to performances, including lack of accessible and affordable ride options, child care and places to stay, sometimes limiting what jobs they can accept. If you’d like to help VOX to continue training and hiring access providers or learn more about their work, please call 774-257-5254 or write to info@thinkoutsidethevox.org.