It started with one performance. Look what happened next!

Audio Description Initiative (ADI) was founded in January 2022 by Stasha Boyd with a simple but ambitious vision: make the arts, entertainment, and live experiences of our community more accessible to people who are blind or have low vision.

Just a few months later, ADI described its first performance, Orlando Ballet’s The Great Gatsby at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. At the time, audio-described live events in Central Florida were few and far between. Today, ADI has helped build a dramatically different landscape, with a growing schedule of audio-described theatre, concerts, cultural events, and sporting competitions throughout the region.

Since 2022, ADI has:

• Audio described more than 275 live performances, concerts, events, and sporting competitions as of July 2026, with more than 50 additional events already scheduled over the next eight months.
• Provided access and services to at least 150 people who are blind or have low vision, including 45 children, across multiple events and venues.
• Partnered with more than 15 venues across seven Florida counties to provide audio description and expand access.
• Trained more than 10 professional audio describers, helping build the talent and capacity needed to meet growing demand.
• Trained and educated more than 80 venue leaders, staff members, and volunteers at member theatres, helping them better understand and support guests who are blind or have low vision.

But ADI’s impact goes well beyond the numbers.

ADI has also advocated for audio description with hundreds of industry leaders, stakeholders, and community members, building awareness of audio description and making the case for greater access to live arts, entertainment, sports, and cultural experiences for people who are blind or have low vision.

And those numbers keep growing.

ADI received its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in October 2023, creating the foundation for an even bigger vision. We are building partnerships, developing professional describers, educating venue teams, growing our membership, and helping organizations understand what meaningful accessibility looks, and sounds like.

Today, ADI serves communities throughout Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties, with expansion underway in Volusia County and beyond. Our goal is bigger than adding a few accessible performances to a calendar. We want people who are blind or have low vision to be able to choose what they want to experience, the same way everyone else does.

A ballet. A concert. A championship game. A museum. A play. A community event.

More choices. More experiences. More access.

We’ve come a long way from that first performance in 2022. And you should see what we’re going to do next!