FAQs

The Ear’s services are available to anyone qualified as unable effectively to read ordinary print because of visual or physical limitations. To sign up for service, call (301) 681-6636, fax us at (301) 625-1986 or email us at info@washear.org. Be sure to include your name, address and telephone number. You may also use our online application for services at application for services.

Audio Description is offered for Live Theater and Opera Performances in Selected Theaters in the Metropolitan Washington Area and Audio Description Soundtracks for Films, Videos, Imax Films and Museums. We also provide audio description training.

Though many Ear listeners and callers are young, as the population ages there are more and more people with visual limitations that restrict their ability to access ordinary print or TV, films, museums, exhibits, and more that fully-sighted people take for granted.

Ear listeners are a true cross-section of our population: homemakers, workers, students, retired persons, individuals in nursing homes and institutions, recovering patients in hospital who can’t hold newspapers or books…in short, anyone with difficulty reading or seeing. But there are thousands more in Virginia, D.C., and Maryland who would use the Ear services if only they knew about them. To sign up for service, call (301) 681-6636, fax us at (301) 625-1986 or email us at info@washear.org. Be sure to include your name, address and telephone number.

More than 350 indispensable volunteers make the Ear possible. They serve as readers, as audio describers, on the speakers’ bureau, as aides, and on the Board of Directors. Paid staff consists of just two full-time and seven part-time professional and technical personnel.

Helpful Links:

Application for Service

Radio Reading Service Agreement

Dial-in Agreement