Since autumn, Stagetext has been raising awareness of captions and live subtitles for arts and culture to deaf and hard of hearing groups across the South East of England. This outreach work is a project funded by the National Lottery Community Fund.
Connecting to these groups, Outreach Project Co-ordinator, Christine Hathway has given talks about captioning and live subtitling at 11 different locations across the region, including Sheringham (Norfolk), Rochester (Kent) and Peterborough (Cambridgeshire) and to more than 140 people.
There are 18 million adults who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing in the UK, including approximately 4.3 million in the South East – that’s 1 in 3 of the local population. Yet many people who could benefit from captions and subtitles at live events in theatres, museums and other cultural venues are unaware that they are available.
When we started these talks, we weren’t sure what to expect. It turns out that around 80% of the people who attended the talks hadn’t heard of captioning and live subtitling before, or hadn’t used it yet – but immediately saw how text-based access would help them enjoy theatre and arts events again.
Nearly 95% of those who attended said they’d like to have text-based access events near them and told us they were happy to learn about captioning and live subtitling.
One attendee said: “I used to love going to the theatre but keep putting it off since my hearing got worse. I am now looking forward to visiting again and actually being able to understand what’s going on.”
Since our talks, more than 80% of people said they had shared information about Stagetext and text-based deaf access to arts and culture with others after the talk. Around 20% told us that since meeting Stagetext they had seen an event with captions or subtitles, and others have booked for future performances.
One person said: “It’s opened up my world again, thank you.” Another said of seeing captions for the first time: “Wonderful. As it was a comedy and very funny I could not have understood it without the captions.”
The main feedback from the groups we’ve spoken to is that they want more deaf access closer to home but a lack of local provision means they’re unable to enjoy theatre and arts with their friends and family.
This project has shown us that when people know theatre captioning and live subtitles are available, they want to make use of it – and will share the information with others and start attending events that provide deaf access. The project has highlighted why accessibility matters and why Stagetext works so hard to advocate for and provide more captioned and live subtitled events across the country.
