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For the past 35 years, Jim O’Connor has been listening to audio stories before he goes to sleep. During his childhood, he used to listen to “The Hobbit” continuously on a Fisher-Price recorder and has since transitioned to other podcasts and audiobooks.

Now, as the producer and head writer for the 90-second audio show Sound Beat, O’Connor is bringing his love for audio storytelling to collaboration with Syracuse University Press and the audio recording production team Access Audio.

Access Audio turns written works into audiobooks with the help of interns from the InclusiveU program, which works to give students with intellectual and developmental disabilities a college experience.

“It’s our goal to be a model of inclusion and accessibility here on campus and in the world beyond,” O’Connor said. “So for us, it’s all about finding a place where people fit.”

Access Audio recently created the audiobook for the SU Press novel “Reservoir Year: A Walker’s Book of Days.” Photo courtesy of Jim O’Connor

Access Audio’s latest project is the adaption of a book about the Ashokan Reservoir in the Catskill Mountains called “Reservoir Year: A Walker’s Book of Days” by Nina Shengold. The audiobook includes narration by actor Kathleen McNenny and music by a local Catskills band, Two Dark Birds.

The “Reservoir Year” audiobook is available through SU Press and streaming services such as Apple Books and Libro.fm. It will be on Audible in the next few weeks, O’Connor said.

Shengold, who lives in the Catskills, wrote the book after setting a goal to walk to the Ashokan Reservoir every day for a year and write about what she saw there. She worked with SU Press and the Access Audio team, as well as 2020 InclusiveU graduate David Ross.

Ross’ role in the project was to look for words in “Reservoir Years” that the narrator may have a hard time pronouncing and find the correct pronunciation. His favorite part of the project was learning about the different reservoirs in central New York. And overall, Shengold said that Ross was “terrific” to work with on the project.

“He was very, very organized. He had gone through all 240-something pages of manuscript and flagged any word that he thought might be unfamiliar,” Shengold said.

Ross started working for Sound Beat after he graduated from InclusiveU. He began working five hours a week and is now up to 15 hours a week, said Bob Barnello, Ross’ mentor. Ross hopes to eventually work at Sound Beat doing full-time research for the daily episodes along with writing the show, Barnello said.

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Laboratory and Archive at SU Libraries. It releases episodes daily and is carried by over 360 markets internationally, O’Connor said.

Shengold worked with three local artists to create illustrations for the book. Although listeners don’t get to experience this artwork when listening to the audiobook, she said they are able to experience a different kind of art.

“It’s a very visual experience on paper, and the equivalent of that in the audiobook is that it becomes a musical experience as well,” Shengold said.

Steve Koester, the primary songwriter, singer and guitarist for Two Dark Birds, worked with his band members and other musicians to create the soundtrack for the audiobook. The soundtrack has an “old-timey feel” and features acoustic sounds, he said. Music from the soundtrack will appear on Two Dark Bird’s new album “Reservoir,” which comes out Nov. 16.

“I’ve been living in this area for over 10 years now, and I’ve spent a lot of time at the Ashokan. I’ve spent a lot of time walking through the woods, and so I took a lot of inspiration from the natural world around here,” Koester said.

Koester worked with Sound Beat intern and InclusiveU senior Ian Coe on creating the soundtrack. Coe chose passages in the book that could correspond with music and gave suggestions for the feel of the music.

Coe grew up listening to audiobooks of his favorite stories and is starting to explore music podcasts. The best part of his internship has been the people he’s worked with and met through Sound Beat, he said.

Although it was challenging to choose descriptive mood words for parts of “Reservoir Year,” Coe said he enjoyed being involved with choosing the musical selections for the audiobook’s soundtrack.

InclusiveU senior Ian Coe worked with musician Steve Koester on the audiobook’s soundtrack. Photo courtesy of Ian Coe

“Audiobooks give people with disability the same access to the reading materials as everyone else,” he said in an email.

O’Connor said he wants authors to turn to Access Audio for quality audio production. He also hopes to teach a class on audiobook production at SU.

He wants to turn written works such as books or journals into accessible audio storytelling and plans to continue having InclusiveU students intern with Sound Beat and work on audio projects.

“Any intern can come to us with their list of ability or disability and know that their strengths will be incorporated into our model,” O’Connor said.

Published on October 27, 2020 at 9:07 pm

Contact Sydney: sabergan@syr.edu