Circus Takes Shape for Blind Fans

Thirteen-year-old Jeff Crandall went to his first circus Wednesday afternoon.

He didn’t see the bright lights and flashy colors under the big top. But he didn’t miss any of the action.

Besides enjoying the booming sounds, fuzzy animals and friendly clowns, Crandall and 49 other blind and severely handicapped students from the Los Angeles-based Foundation for the Junior Blind got to “see” the afternoon Circus Vargas performance in Burbank by tuning in the action on AM radios.

Special Radio Hookup

“It’s like a sports play-by-play. I feel like Chick Hearn,” said radio disc jockey Frank Diego. He used a special radio hookup inside the circus tent to broadcast descriptions of the trapeze acts and clowns to the children as the show unfolded before them.

“Only I have to remember to tell them how round or soft or furry or smooth everything is, and I have to remember to tell them that the person on the trapeze is going back and forth and back and forth,” he said.

The radio hookup, designed and installed by volunteers from the telephone company, was part of a field trip for the youngsters.

Visits With Animals

With the help of adult volunteers, the children visited with circus creatures ranging from elephants to yaks. Their squeals of delight drowned out the honks of geese as they cornered the birds to stroke the feathered backs.

“They’ll talk about this for days. It just makes them so happy,” said Calvin Javis, a volunteer counselor from the school, as he carefully handed a baby goat from one child to another. “Some of them may not seem like they’re experiencing much of this, but then you’ll see that they’re laughing to themselves and smiling. It’s fantastic to see.”

To help the children get the most out of the circus, volunteers led them around to touch whatever they were hearing, or had heard about from others.

Crandall wanted to know what a circus tent was like, so a volunteer helped him find a corner to touch, telling him that the plastic he was feeling stretched way above his head.

“It’s like vinyl, just like the elephant,” Crandall said in awe.

Roy Kolesar, vice president of the local chapter of the Telephone Pioneers of America, said volunteers from his group have set up the low-frequency radio transmitter at circus performances and Ice Capades shows since they created the inexpensive hookup from used telephone parts more than six years ago. The group also created “beep baseball,” which lets blind children play the game with sound-emitting balls and bats.

“It’s special for these kids because it’s an outing for them and they can drink pop and eat popcorn and enjoy the circus just like any other kid,” Kolesar said. “It’s very good therapy for them.”