THE HIPPO

Health care bill storytime

Voice actors read it aloud

It’s not exactly beach reading, but the 1,018- page proposed health care reform bill provides readers all they need to know about President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul plan, at least until their eyes glaze over.

For the sake of people who are visually impaired or who otherwise don’t feel like reading the text, a group of 80 voiceover professionals volunteered to turn the entire bill into an audiobook. It’s available at www.hearthebill.org and can be downloaded in pieces or in its entirety.

“It was definitely a worthwhile project,” said Cameron Thomas, a voiceover professional based in Amherst (www.cameronthomasvoiceovers.com) who participated in reading the bill. The volunteers, who came from all over the country and Great Britain, each read about 20 pages. “It was a great way to be a part of the process in a non-partisan way. That was the big theme of this whole thing.”

The initial idea for the project was tossed out on Facebook, Thomas said. “It grew feet and it snowballed,” he said. Thomas said voice actors Diane Havens and Kathleen Keesling spearheaded the effort.

It took about three weeks to put together in August. Additional volunteers checked over audio tracks to “make sure none of us dozed while we were recording,” Thomas said. “It was definitely dull reading.” Volunteering isn’t something new to the voiceover community. Thomas said he and others have regularly donated time to read news stories for online publications for the visually impaired.

As the bill evolves during the current legislative session, Thomas said, volunteers will be ready to address any changes that come up. “We are definitely going to try to keep up with that,” Thomas said. As of last week, Thomas said, the Web site has had about 300,000 hits and the story has been picked up by several national publications.

—JM