Deaf Awareness Week 2026 (4th–10th May) was one of our busiest yet! This year’s theme was ‘Right to understand – Together, we break barriers’. For the 18 million adults in the UK who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing, these barriers are felt every time a show is uncaptioned or a museum tour is inaccessible. Breaking barriers is a theme that Stagetext has worked towards for more than 25 years, advocating for and providing deaf access for theatre, live performances, talks, museum tours, book festivals, comedy shows, films and videos.
This year, we focused on text-based access in museums and heritage, making the case that these spaces should be as welcoming to deaf, deafened and hard of hearing visitors as any theatre or festival.
New research: quality access matters
During the week, we published new research, carried out with support from RNID, the Arts Marketing Association and Peak Signal. The research showed that 85% of deaf, deafened or hard of hearing people say the quality of subtitles matters to them, and that poor subtitles can make it harder to process what’s being said.
The survey also asked whether poor quality subtitles were better than nothing and 51% of respondents disagreed. This shows that quality subtitles matter and poor-quality subtitles may exclude the people they were meant to serve.
Our webinar: honest conversations about deaf access in heritage
On Wednesday 6th May, we brought together museums and heritage professionals for a free webinar, Subtitling the Past, Present and Future, exploring what good deaf access looks like, and where the sector still has work to do.
Colchester Castle joined us to share their experience of introducing live subtitled talks and tours, and we heard from Nick Tedd a deaf visitor to museums and galleries who spoke about how a lack of access can make him feel unwelcome.
One attendee of the webinar said:
“Really excellent today. The context setting at the start was extremely helpful and meant I could understand more about what it means to be D/deaf without feeling nervous about asking insensitive questions. By far the best webinar I’ve watched for a long time. Really well done.”
Live at Colchester Castle
Over the weekend, we joined Colchester Castle’s live subtitled talk and tour in person joined by one of our ambassadors and providing information and advice to visitors looking for access support. This was a great example of what deaf access looks like beyond the theatre. Visitors enjoyed a subtitled talk about the vaults and followed this with a tour beneath the castle, being fully included in the experience from start to finish.
Where it all began
We also took a moment this week to look back at how Stagetext came to be. We spoke to co-founder Peter Pullan and Lynn Jackson, the first person trained to caption for Stagetext, about the night in 2000 when the UK’s first ever captioned theatre performance took place at the Barbican. It’s a story worth reading as it shows just how far we’ve come.
Thank you
Deaf Awareness Week shines a light on something that matters all year round. None of what we do is possible without the venues who’ve embraced captioning, the audiences who’ve shared their experiences, and the supporters who make it all happen. Thank you.
If you’re looking for your next accessible event, visit our What’s On page. And if you’re a venue thinking about deaf access, we’d love to hear from you.
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