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RP (Retinitis Pigmentosa) International has been helping counsel and comfort the visually impaired and their families for approximately 40 years.

RPI is providing education and spreading the word regarding the millions of people who have retinal degenerative diseases like Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), Macular Degeneration and Usher's Syndrome.

Our research advisory board invites funding requests from prestigious research centers and awards the most promising. RPI has contributed over $8 million to medical research and is behind the first successful retinal transplant.

Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) strikes people of all ages. Unfortunately, children are the most commonly diagnosed. We are determined to stop RP within this generation.

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TheatreVision

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TheatreVision™© is an exciting new program making films accessible to the visually challenged. The concept of narration and description of motion pictures was created by Helen Harris, founding president of RP International (RPI), the leading non-profit organization in the United States fighting retinitis pigmentosa (RP). and other blinding, degenerative eye diseases.TheatreVision™© is a new process of incorporating a special soundtrack for feature films that runs concurrently with the dialogue of the picture. This track provides a "descriptive narration" of what is being shown on the screen, so that those without sight can still experience the wonderful medium of motion pictures. Over the next few years, plans call for these special narrative tracts to be heard via headsets in theaters all over the United States.

With the help and cooperation of many in the Hollywood community, the prototype for TheatreVision™© was created. The critically acclaimed smash, Paramount Pictures' Forrest Gump, was the first film to be completed in this format, making its TheatreVision™© debut before a visually challenged audience December 28. 1994, at the Cineplex Odeon/Fairfax Theater In L.A., and with a gala screening for the entertainment community February 21, 1995 at Paramount Studios.

This new film technique is anticipated to briny between 10 and 31 million visually impaired moviegoers into theaters. Many of Hollywood s top filmmakers have already created TheatreVision™© versions of their existing films. These specially formatted films are being made available to the unsighted through select neighborhood theaters, as well as through libraries, charitable organizations, special screenings and schools for the blind.

Among the movies already audio described through TheatreVision™© includes "Home for the Holidays","Batman Forever", "The American President", "Pocahantas", "The Truth About Cats and Dogs", "Little Women", "Flipper', Apollo 13", "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Mission Impossible", "Braveheart". "Schindler's List", "Twister", "Volcano", Disney's "Hercules", and TNTs "George Wallace".

TheatreVision™© complements RPI's existing program, AudioVision™ which provides audio-oriented, "visually challenged" versions of media ranging from cards to books.

For more information about "TheatreVision", please visit: www.theatrevision.org