When my friends and I went to a 4th of July parade in a nearby town a few years ago, I realized that I didn’t know very much about watching parades with vision loss or making parades accessible to visually impaired guests. Most of my parade experience up until that point had involved participating in parades, whether it was riding on a float, playing with the marching band, or walking the parade route while holding onto a friend as a makeshift human guide- from where I was, all of the other parade participants more or less looked like distorted blobs moving down the street. On the car ride there, I started thinking about how I would watch a parade with low vision and came up with a list of strategies to try, many of which were successful and helped my friends and I enjoy the parade, as well as figure out what the “blobs” moving down the street actually looked like. Here are my tips for watching parades with vision loss, inclusive of blind, low vision, and visually impaired spectators.
What does an accessible parade look like for visually impaired spectators?
When planning an accessible parade for visually impaired guests (inclusive of blind and low vision), the most important thing to consider is that visual impairment is a spectrum, not a binary. Visual impairment can affect individuals in many different ways, and what is considered accessible by one person may not be accessible to another. That said, here are some characteristics that come to mind when I think of creating an inclusive and accessible parade to an audience that includes individuals with visual impairments:
- Availability of an unobstructed viewing area near the media station or where the parade announcers are located
- Descriptions of floats posted online with high-resolution pictures that spectators can view on their own devices
- Avoid throwing items into the crowd, or offer designated seating areas where items will not be thrown into the crowd
- For parade floats, avoid adding strobe or rapidly flashing lights, which can be disorienting. Lights in general are fine, and may actually make floats or items easier to see for many spectators with vision loss
- Offer a pre-parade description or tour where visually impaired individuals can walk around and look at different floats or participants up close, which can be offered before the parade starts to pre-registered participants
- Audio description that provides detailed visual descriptions of parade floats that can be accessed through a receiver or live audio feed.
Another key part of making parades accessible to visually impaired individuals is to provide parade safety information in an accessible text-based format, such as a page on a website, a Word document, or similar.
Related links
- Fast Facts About Audio Description
- Tips For Visiting Art Museums With Low Vision
- Avoiding Flashing Lights On Social Media
Search for parade accessibility information
Many larger parades or parades at amusement parks will have information on accessibility or attending parades with a disability posted on their website, which may include information on accessible seating, descriptions of the parade area, sign language interpreting, and stairs-free entrances or viewing areas. I strongly recommend checking out parade accessibility information in advance, as spectators may need to register in advance for accessible seating or interpreting.
Watch a live stream of the parade online
One of the benefits of streaming video for viewers with low vision is that they can position the screen close to their face, pause the video, or zoom in on the video feed with a pinch-to-zoom gesture if they are using a touch screen. It’s difficult to “zoom in” on parade floats in real life (unless the person is using bioptics or some type of telescope), and even more challenging if the person has an obstructed view of their surroundings, so a live stream can provide increased access to visual information with a closer view of different parade elements. Live stream information can often be found on the parade website or social media, and is typically hosted on a platform like YouTube or Facebook.
Related links
- How To Make Classroom Videos Easier To See
- How To Make Things On The Board Easier To See
- Streaming Audio Description For Performing Arts Videos
Listen to parade broadcasts on radio
Local parades often have a radio or media partner that provides live coverage of the event, including descriptions of different performers or floats as they pass by the media station. Since these radio broadcasts are designed to be enjoyed nonvisually or by someone who isn’t looking at the parade, these can be an ideal option for spectators with visual impairments who want to listen to information about the parade route. There are a few options for listening to radio broadcasts, including handheld or personal radios that can be positioned next to the ear or listened to with headphones, or streaming websites that provide live radio coverage. I recommend searching the parade website to find out more about media partners for a specific event.
Some parades offer headsets or receivers for listening to live radio broadcasts or audio description at parade events, which can provide key visual information for spectators. This information will usually be promoted by local blindness organizations, accessible media libraries, and other groups that serve visually impaired populations. I found information for a local parade on a local accessibility blog maintained by the city’s public library.
Related links
Describing parade floats to visually impaired spectators
Smaller community parades might not have many resources for blind or visually impaired spectators, which often means that describing parade floats or other visual information falls on a sighted friend or family member. In these situations, the number one goal of the description should be to answer this question: what makes this float/group interesting or cool to look at?
Some ways that someone could answer this question include:
- How the float is decorated
- What materials are used to construct the float/display
- Mentioning unique characteristics or items
- What people are doing on or around the float
- Size of the float or group
When I went to a parade with a blind friend, I would take pictures of each float as it walked by, zoom in on the picture, and then describe what the photo looked like. Some examples of descriptions I shared included:
- The 4-H club has about two dozen brown, black, and white goats walking on leashes. Some of them have floppy ears like dogs!
- A local toy store has a large flamingo float made of small pink and black balloons that two people hold up as they wave to the audience. It looks like they are riding on the back of a flamingo.
- There’s a therapy dog group that has eight golden retrievers sitting on a float with lots of books on it. There are kids next to each dog holding up books and waving, as well as a sign for the therapy dog reading program.
- The high school marching band is huge! They easily have over 100 musicians, twice the size of the band we saw earlier. Someone decorated their sousaphone with red, white, and blue string lights that change colors as they play.
- The vintage car club is driving a few cars down the street that look like they are from the 1950s, including a mint green convertible.
Some of the floats or parade participants didn’t require much description from me because they had obvious sound cues, like a fire truck. Others required me to do a bit more research to answer the questions my friend had about different participants, like the types of cars used by the vintage car club or the breeds of goats being walked on a leash. This is where having Google Lens on my phone was helpful because I could use the photo to run a Google search and identify different items.
Related links
- Google Lens Review For Low Vision
- How I Use Google Assistant While Traveling
- Marching Band and Low Vision
- Therapy Dog Reading Programs and Low Vision
Search for parade broadcasts with live audio description
Audio description, sometimes referred to as descriptive audio or described video, is a secondary audio track that describes visual information for those who might not be able to see it. The Rose Parade and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade both offer live audio description on their cable broadcasts, which can be accessed via Secondary Audio Programming (SAP). The program run time is not altered in any way, and the additional audio description track will play on top of the other audio on the program during natural pauses in dialogue. Information for audio description is provided on the network website a few days before the parade airs, and may also be listed on the Audio Description Project website.
The exact method for enabling SAP varies by cable company, so I recommend running a web search to find information about how to enable SAP for individual devices- my family’s cable company has SAP settings in the Audio Settings section of their settings menu. If available, users can also contact the accessibility support phone number for their cable provider which can provide assistance with shorter wait times than traditional support lines.
Related links
More resources for watching parades with vision loss
- Having a list of the participants in the parade and their expected order can be helpful for those following along with the parade or creating descriptions of floats, especially if they can’t hear the announcers sharing the names of participants.
- Want to learn more about accessibility for temporary events? I share a list of tips and resources in the post Disability Accommodations For Graduation
- Some individuals with vision loss may find it more challenging to use their vision effectively in areas with bright sunlight or extreme hot/cold temperatures. This can manifest at parades, where someone’s vision may inexplicably seem “worse” than usual. I talk about this more in Disability Accommodations For Fluctuating Eyesight
Published July 10, 2019. Updated September 2024