Biography
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ABOUT WOMAN OF HER WORD: Michele Spitz is a professional voiceover artist, media accessibility consultant and public speaker, disability advocate and philanthropist. For the past 7 years, she
has dedicated her career to making the world accessible to people
of all communities by providing her vocal talents to filmmakers, publishers, event and speaking venues, and charitable organizations. Wherever Michele's voice is, her heart is also; short and full-length documentaries, feature films, museums, educational programming, corporate and fundraising videos, audio manuals, VOG, and public
service announcements.
As a philanthropist, Michele has been providing post production
audio description grants to multiple filmmakers, production companies, film festivals, museums, nonprofits and media entertainment organizations.
She is most passionate about her audio description production and voiceover narration allowing access
for low vision and blind audiences to equally experience film, digital media, and the cultural arts. Michele
is unique in that she works very closely with every client to ensure that the highest quality asset is delivered
and implemented on all distribution platforms for the life of the film. For the past 7 years, Michele has traveled extensively between New York and Los Angeles to ascertain and merge together East and West
Coast media and cultural arts accessibility philosophies and methodologies. In 2021, Michele will be
expanding her travels periodically to the UK to further her research and experience in media and arts
accessibility approaches.
She has voiced over 80 projects including the documentary features; Itzhak, How Sweet the Sound - The
Blind Boys of Alabama, CinemAbility: The Art of Inclusion, Lives Well Lived, Dealt, Capturing the Flag,
and Becoming Bulletproof. Commercially released films include Pavarotti, The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years, and Miss You Already. She also video described The Great Muppet Caper for Disney Cable. Upcoming film releases include Blithe Spirit, Bee Gees Documentary: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, Best Summer Ever, and The Great 14th: Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama In His Own Words.
Michele has sponsored and voiced the audio description for select films annually for Superfest: SF International Disability Film Festival and provided the same annually for ReelAbilities: NY International Disability Film Festival. She was a panelist and sponsor for the opening of the 2018 ReelAbilities: LA International Disability Film Festival. She frequently video describes annual fundraising gala videos for disability organizations. Michele also provides in-kind audio description production grants to prominent museums, such as the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in 2018. She is currently positioning
and allocating new accessibility grants to additional museums.
Michele personally underwrites hundreds of patron attendance tickets, artist interactive programs and
assistive audience technology for the performing, visual and cultural arts world. These underwriting
programs serve disabled, senior, veteran, and underserved communities. She is a supporter of Broadway Dreams, Actors for Autism, The Miracle Project, Axis Dance, Deaf West Theater, Deaf Film Camp, Positive Exposure 109, SFJAZZ, Jewish Community Center San Francisco (JCCSF) Arts & Ideas, San Francisco
Jewish Film Festival, and Osher Marin Jewish Community Center (JCC) Senior Excursions. Michele also supported LightHouse for the Blind, Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB), Helen Keller Services for the Blind,
and That Man May See.
As a member of New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT), she serves as a judge on the annual Disability Awareness Film Panel and the Post Production Documentary Film Panel. Michele originated and sponsored the first annual grant providing audio description and closed captioning for the NYWIFT Disability Awareness and documentary films awarded, and also initiated the first ever annual Accessibility Finishing Film Grant for Women in Film (WIF). NYWIFT filmmaker recipients are awarded at the annual NYWIFT MUSE Awards. She has been the Voice of God (VOG) announcer for the 2018 and 2019 NYWIFT
Michele continues to promote, initiate and pursue thought-provoking media accessibility panels. She has participated on panels for IDA Getting Real '20, Film Independent, NYWIFT, Women in Film LA (WIF), 55th
New York Film Festival (NYFF), ReelAbilities NY and ReelAbilities LA Film Festivals. She is frequently invited to make appearances for media accessibility presentations at various cinema screenings. She
has conducted audio description classes for Respectability and Lights! Camera! Access! 2.0.
Educating future media makers to incorporate inclusive mindsets has been an important focus of hers.
In 2016, Michele initiated and sponsored the first British Academy of Film and Television Arts New York (BAFTA) Media Graduate Studies three year scholarship program at Feirstein School of Cinema designated for film students with disabilities. She will be underwriting student tuition for the Audio Description Institute summer program for aspiring describers. Michele is currently sponsoring and implementing fellowship programs for individuals with disabilities to position in media and entertainment organizations designed
to promote impact campaigns with the intention of raising universal awareness for media accessibility.
The multiple aspirations and advocacy of Woman of Her Word have been featured in interviews with
the Hollywood Reporter, Variety, NBC Bay Area Proud, Marin Arts & Culture Magazine, San Francisco Examiner, PRN.FM, KWMR, KPOO radio programs, and multiple podcasts. The select catalog of films and digital media for which Michele voiced the audio description are listed on IMDb, and can be experienced in cinemas, via broadcast, educational platforms, new media, VOD, SVOD, DVD and Blue-RAY.
Michele's commitment is unwavering in the pursuit for inclusion in the arts. Her very presence is a unifying
force, which results in equality of experience to the communities she serves.