Scott Saunders, 31, is a devoted Richmond Flying Squirrels fan who attends every game he can. When he turned 30 last summer, he got the opportunity to throw out the first pitch during a game at The Diamond. “It was exciting. I practiced a lot before I did it so I knew how long the field would be. ... Then I went out and threw it perfectly,” he says.
Saunders nailed it, despite being completely blind.
His blindness doesn’t hold him back — not when there is a little voice in his ear telling him every strike and game-changing line drive. The play-by-play commentary is provided courtesy of Virginia Voice, a Richmond-based nonprofit that offers audio access to news, performing arts programming and other events.
“We give him a little earpiece and get him and his companion to their seats,” explains Tim Vogel, program and volunteer manager at Virginia Voice. “Then, somewhere on the premises, two of our volunteers are tucked away, describing the game. We’ve got some folks who are really talented with baseball.”
One of those talents is Tom Shumate, a manager at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond as well as a lifelong baseball fan and coach to a son who progressed to collegiate ball. “I watch entirely too much baseball,” Shumate says with a laugh.
Describing the plays is just part of the service, he says. “What benefits our listeners is not just the game, because they can hear that with the public address announcer. What’s important is describing the things that are in between innings that they can’t see,” such as the guy dressed in the pink flamingo outfit running down the foul line, hurling hot dogs into the crowd. Knowing his listeners can hear the crowd yelling, Shumate, a Virginia Voice volunteer for more than six years, relates the minute-by-minute antics. “You are trying to paint a really clear picture,” he says.
For Saunders, who has been blind since suffering a brain bleed at six months old, those details make all the difference. “It’s impressive,” he says. “Normally, my mom would tell me certain things that I wouldn’t know. Then, when I did the audio description [through Virginia Voice], I discovered there was a lot nobody was telling me. I love that they read the program about the players. Whoever is up to bat, they will say things like where they are from, how old they are and try to explain the little games between the innings.”
The details and verbal pictures help bring those with visual impairments into the community, allowing them to participate more fully in events many of us may take for granted. “We wholeheartedly stand behind the fact that every person, regardless of ability, should have access to everything,” says Yvonne Mastromano, CEO of Virginia Voice. “We create access to print materials and live audio descriptions of local activities. That’s what we do every day. It’s important because so many people with blindness don’t feel included in the community, and so they don’t come out in the community. They stay at home.”
With its live descriptions of local events and cultural spaces, a 24/7 radio station and a library of audiobooks, this small organization with a legion of volunteers helps keep people with visual impairments connected.
Community Engagement Coordinator Sharalyn Garrard and Program and Volunteer Manager Tim Vogel (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Left in the Dark
Many of the people Virginia Voice serves were once sighted, Mastromano says. “About 80% are 65 and older and lost their vision later in life. For the demographic we serve, the No. 1 cause is age-related macular degeneration. The No. 1 cause of blindness in the United States is diabetic retinopathy.”
Losing one’s vision can be shattering, leaving people disconnected from the world of words and pictures. While at a low-vision conference in Williamsburg, Mastromano recalls meeting a 52-year-old woman diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive degeneration of the retina that can start in childhood and slowly lead to blindness.
“She has about 8% to 10% vision straight ahead, nothing peripheral,” Mastromano says. “She was diagnosed with blindness, and she lost her job and her license — boom, just like that. She had a 30-year career as a nurse.”
The impact of such situations transcends the personal struggle. “When this happens, yes, of course, the person who is blind loses out, but so do we,” Mastromano says. “She was a contributing member of our community. We shut those folks out. That lack of access and inclusion — this sounds like a catchphrase, but it has an impact.”
The affect is economic as well, she adds. “So many people [with blindness] want to contribute. They want to be part of the community, and they can’t because they can’t get a job.”
Virginia’s overall unemployment rate is around 3% to 4%, but unemployment estimates for those with blindness or visual impairments are higher than 70%, according to the American Foundation for the Blind. One out of three visually impaired people lives below the poverty line.
CEO Yvonne Mastromano with the pretuned receivers Virginia Voice loans free of charge (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Sights as Sound
Loneliness and disconnect are also pervasive among those with blindness, Mastromano notes. “There are a whole lot of folks we serve who live alone.”
Virginia Voice’s live audio descriptions allow visually impaired people to experience Richmond’s thriving arts and culture scene at mainstays such as the Virginia Opera, Virginia Repertory Theatre, Richmond Triangle Players, Agecroft Hall & Gardens, and even the annual Christmas Parade. “Our listeners will come out to art and cultural things around the city,” Vogel says. “They have a little receiver and headphones. We train volunteer describers to fill in the visual aspects of what’s going on while they are seated in the audience with their friends and family.
“We have about 30 community partners we work with to provide free tickets for our listener and a companion, as well as transportation, because that is often a difficulty, so they can just enjoy a day out just like you and I would,” he explains.
The innovative program was launched in 2018 by Jim Wark, former Virginia Voice CEO, to increase access to the performing arts. The beloved Richmond-area nonprofit leader and skilled guitarist died of cancer in 2020.
Live audio description is just one of the services provided by Virginia Voice. Core to its mission of aiding those with reading challenges due to vision impairments and those who have difficulty holding printed materials is a 24/7 radio reading and information service. Volunteers read from more than 200 publications weekly. The flagship program is a two-hour live reading of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, starting at 8:10 a.m. on weekdays.
The publications are often read by Lindsay Ryland, a volunteer for 36 years, and her reading partner Fred Danz, who has been with Virginia Voice for 35 years. Nearly every day at 10 a.m., they don headphones in a recording booth at Virginia Voice’s studio, opposite the glass where Studio Manager Alex Childress monitors a sound board. “I like the flexibility. I like the news, and I feel like I’m helping people,” Ryland says of her longtime service.
Fred Danz and Lindsay Ryland are longtime volunteer news readers at Virginia Voice. (Photo by Claire Fortier)
Expanding Access
Founded in 1978 as Virginia Voice for the Print Handicapped, the small operation provided those with visual impairments meaningful access to news and cultural content via subcarrier channels through a partnership with WRFK, an FM station owned by the Union Theological Seminary of Richmond. Subcarrier broadcasts enabled those with specialized receivers to access text in audio form without overwhelming a station’s bandwidth.
Although originally envisioned as a statewide network with multiple affiliates, that broader model never took hold. When WRFK ceased operations in 1988, WCVE-FM emerged as Richmond’s new public radio station and became the institutional home for Virginia Voice.
Bill Spiller, a pioneer in Richmond public broadcasting, supported Virginia Voice by providing the necessary broadcast infrastructure and technical support. Now part of VPM, WCVE provides the infrastructure for Virginia Voice.
Access can still be a problem for visually impaired people who are unable to turn dials or navigate menus. About 11,000 listeners use pretuned receivers with just on/off and volume dials, which Virginia Voice loans free of charge. The more technologically inclined can borrow Echo Dot smart speakers that open Virginia Voice via an interactive vocal interface. Many more access the streaming content at virginiavoice.org.
“We read a lot of stuff,” Vogel says. “We have three recording booths. We can record multiple people at the same time, and that’s the way the magic happens. We are a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week station, but we don’t have to have somebody here. Volunteers record ahead of time, and we just need to play them in the correct order.”
We wholeheartedly stand behind the fact that every person, regardless of ability, should have access to everything.
— Yvonne Mastromano, Virginia Voice CEO
The content includes music, health, humor and more. The daily schedule of 30-some programs reads like a bookstore magazine rack, featuring publications such as Men’s Health, Bon Appetit, Forbes and Fine Gardening, as well as daily news, Bible readings, diverse literature, food, regional issues, political opinion, obituaries, horoscopes and live shows. In addition, the Virginia Voice website offers an extensive archive of audiobooks.
With so much material, one would think finding volunteers to read all of it would be a challenge. But, Vogel says, "I have a huge, huge wait list, enormous, pushing 200 people. We don’t have turnover. Nobody leaves, which is awesome.”
Harking back to his brief stint at a New Orleans commercial radio station, he adds, “It’s like radio but way better. These are friendly people who want to give back.”
The actual voices of Virginia Voice are the more than 150 volunteers who read, describe live events and deliver radio access sets to those with visual challenges. “We have about 80 to 100 who are readers, and most readers have a fixed assignment,” Vogel explains. “Say you are the new Time magazine reader. First, you get through the audition, because not everyone is great at reading aloud. Then we train you on our equipment, give you logins and set you up. Then we rely on you to produce a new recording of Time magazine for us on a weekly basis.”
Alex Childress in the Virginia Voice studio (Photo by Ash Daniel)
When the COVID-19 pandemic caused shutdowns for public safety, Virginia Voice was in danger of closing its doors. A silver lining that came out of the challenge was the ability to record from home. It was made possible by Childress, who joined the organization right out of college in 2008. “When COVID hit, volunteers asked how they can still help out,” he says. “So, I had them record on their own computer. Then they would send in the sound. Our longtime readers know what their voices sound like, but for the others, we needed a test recording to serve as a technical check.”
Childress was the only person in the studio during most of the pandemic. But thanks to his efforts, a dedicated staff operating remotely and an army of volunteers, the show went on.
The concert and event cancellations caused by the pandemic also drew Mastromano, the former CEO of the Innsbrook Foundation (the group formerly behind the Innsbrook After Hours concert series), to Virginia Voice. “I was given an opportunity here,” Mastromano says. “We were in a great place in some ways when I started four years ago. Jim Wark raised a lot of money for us. I don’t think Virginia Voice could have made it without him.”
That said, a critical element of Mastromano’s job is fundraising to meet the organization’s annual operating budget of approximately $450,000. “We don’t charge for any of our services, so every dime that comes in the door is because of a donation — individuals, foundations, corporate support and service clubs.”
Among the group’s new initiatives is Guide and Stride, a run/walk event that debuted in June. Participants with visual challenges are paired with sighted guides who pace their partners, sometimes tethered or just holding an arm. They stay together right until just before the finish line. At the last moment, guides drop back a step so their partners can bask in their achievement and finish the race independently. Held at Collegiate School, the inaugural event had about 50 participants.
Mastromano credits Virginia Voice’s continued success to its staff of 10. “We have a solid team. That is the difference to me. You can have a great mission; we do. You can have a great community that we serve; yes, check that box. We also have awesome volunteers. But if it were not for the team, the engine that keeps things going every day, we couldn’t do this. Everyone is truly invested in the mission. It’s not just a job, and that really shows when we interface with our listeners.”
