Celebrate Captioning Awareness Week 9-15 November, 2026
Captioning Awareness Week is Stagetext’s annual campaign celebrating the theatres, museums and galleries across the UK that use captions and live subtitles to make the arts accessible for people who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing.
We started with one theatre captioned show, The Duchess of Malfi, in the year 2000. Today, we caption and subtitle around 1,000 arts and culture events every year.
During Captioning Awareness Week (9-15 November), we’re shining a spotlight on all the incredible captioned and live subtitled events happening across the country, celebrating the venues making access a priority, and sharing stories from the people who can finally enjoy live performances without missing a single word.
Celebrate theatre captions and live subtitles in arts and culture
- Captioning Awareness Week celebrates text-based deaf access to arts and culture
- The week-long campaign raises awareness of theatre captioning and subtitling and challenges misconceptions around deaf access
- We share stories about the positive impact theatre captioning and live subtitling have had on deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people’s lives.
- During the week we work together with theatres, arts and heritage venues across the UK to promote accessible theatre shows, talks and tours.
- Through Captioning Awareness Week, we encourage arts, culture and heritage venues and organisations to support the 18 million deaf, deafened and hard of hearing adults in the UK and change lives.
For Venues
Register for our webinar
Find out how to welcome deaf, deafened and hard of hearing audiences to your venue. Join our during Captioning Awareness Week.
Deaf Awareness Training
Our team can help your venue or organisation understand deaf audiences and make simple changes that really matter to your deaf, deafened and hard of hearing visitors.
Set up a captioned event
As the UK’s leading provider of deaf access through theatre captions, live and digital subtitles, we’re here to help you make that happen for your venue’s performance or event.
For Audiences
Keep in the loop
Sign up for Stagetext’s newsletter to stay in the loop about upcoming captioned shows and live subtitled events.
See a captioned show
Celebrate Captioning Awareness Week by attending one of the many captioned or live subtitled events across the UK during 9-15 November.
Become an Ambassador
Stagetext ambassadors are volunteers who help support our work and are the voice or arts-loving caption and subtitle users across the UK. If that sounds like you, get in touch!
Testimonials
Captions and live subtitles open doors to arts and culture. Don’t take our word for it, hear how transformative they can be from deaf audiences.
Research and resources
Not sure where to start? Have a look at our research or our guidance to make sure that what you’re offering is the best quality for your audiences.
Our Impact
What does accessible arts and culture look like? Find out how we’re transforming arts and culture at venues and organisations across the UK.
Gallery
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Will Johnston Photography 11th July 2024 - Channel 4 Paralympics Launch Event at The Electric Light Station, Shoreditch
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A photo of a Wellcome Collection tour with visitors holding tablets with live subtitles on them. - Image 6 of 11
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Captioned performance of Much ado about nothing at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, photographer Malachy Luckie - Image 9 of 11
Captioned performance of Much ado about nothing at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, photographer Malachy Luckie
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Want to get involved? Get in touch – we’d love to hear from you!
Venues: We work with venues throughout the year, offering training sessions and free resources, including the Captioning Display Standards.
Captioned Events: See all the captioned events happening on our What’s On page.