Blind and Visually Impaired Community
↑
9
↓
Expanding theatre to be comfortable to visually impaired people, need advice to make it better! (self.Blind)
submitted by vicvilhson
Hello everyone!
​
I am new to this sub and have come looking for help.
​
TLDR: looking for help with finding activities and topics that would be interesting to do and discuss in a theatre setting for the visually impaired.
​
I work in a theatre which for the longest time did not have subtitles or any audio visual helping guides for visually or hearing impaired people.
​
Recently all of our theatre performance have been subtitled and in this process we figured that we could also make subtitles for the hard of hearing and have headphones with someone reading scene directions for the visually impaired.
​
This has only started recently and we have not had any advertising that we are doing this or that people with certain impairments can come and enjoy the theatre in a much fuller way than they could have before.
​
So an idea was born to do what we call a "social week", where we would specifically invite people from groups and communities that revolve around visually and hearing impaired persons.
​
We will have performances of our best plays and in between them we will have workshops and conferences where we will discuss how the theatre is moving forward in accepting a broader range of people.
​
For activities we have planned:
1. to walk people people through our museums, where we have costumes and props that people could touch and interact with
2. to let people touch and interact with the actors and their costumes before the start of the play (considering that it is Covid-19 time, I think it best to mention that in our country everyone has vaccine passports so there should be no risk from close interaction).
​
I want to ask everyone who could have any input into this to share what would they want to be included in such workshops and conferences, what would you want to experience, touch and feel. What would you want to discuss, what activities in a theatre would interest you? What would make this experience better.
​
If you have any insights or ideas to offer that would make the experience better and hopefully encourage more people to come the theatre and expand the range of activities that certain groups could enjoy I and probably a great more people would be extremely grateful to you!
​
Thank you for hearing me out!
​
p.s. I apologize if the text is hard to understand as my native language is not English.
​
I am new to this sub and have come looking for help.
​
TLDR: looking for help with finding activities and topics that would be interesting to do and discuss in a theatre setting for the visually impaired.
​
I work in a theatre which for the longest time did not have subtitles or any audio visual helping guides for visually or hearing impaired people.
​
Recently all of our theatre performance have been subtitled and in this process we figured that we could also make subtitles for the hard of hearing and have headphones with someone reading scene directions for the visually impaired.
​
This has only started recently and we have not had any advertising that we are doing this or that people with certain impairments can come and enjoy the theatre in a much fuller way than they could have before.
​
So an idea was born to do what we call a "social week", where we would specifically invite people from groups and communities that revolve around visually and hearing impaired persons.
​
We will have performances of our best plays and in between them we will have workshops and conferences where we will discuss how the theatre is moving forward in accepting a broader range of people.
​
For activities we have planned:
1. to walk people people through our museums, where we have costumes and props that people could touch and interact with
2. to let people touch and interact with the actors and their costumes before the start of the play (considering that it is Covid-19 time, I think it best to mention that in our country everyone has vaccine passports so there should be no risk from close interaction).
​
I want to ask everyone who could have any input into this to share what would they want to be included in such workshops and conferences, what would you want to experience, touch and feel. What would you want to discuss, what activities in a theatre would interest you? What would make this experience better.
​
If you have any insights or ideas to offer that would make the experience better and hopefully encourage more people to come the theatre and expand the range of activities that certain groups could enjoy I and probably a great more people would be extremely grateful to you!
​
Thank you for hearing me out!
​
p.s. I apologize if the text is hard to understand as my native language is not English.
Marconius 3 points 1y ago
For visually impaired and blind patrons, most theatres here in the Bay Areea in the California have live audio description. Certain dates would have a live describer sitting in the sound booth or location reading from a script or describing on the fly through a radio transciever, and the patrons would all have little radios and earpieces so they could enjoy the performance and hear the description at the same time. The descriptions would include details of set design, costumes, and actor appearance during the pre-show seating time and during intermission.
Some larger shows like Wicked and Hamilton use an automatic description system called GalaPro, which is a device that has both audio description synced to the lighting cues of the show along with captions. There is also a mobile app for the same thing, but I've had terrible experiences with both and do not recommend them at all.
Using a live audio description service is much preferred.
Some larger shows like Wicked and Hamilton use an automatic description system called GalaPro, which is a device that has both audio description synced to the lighting cues of the show along with captions. There is also a mobile app for the same thing, but I've had terrible experiences with both and do not recommend them at all.
Using a live audio description service is much preferred.
vicvilhson [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Thanks for the insight, I had no idea that there were automatic transcription devices like GalaPro.
We will be using live transcription as we decided it would thr best approach.
Thanks!
We will be using live transcription as we decided it would thr best approach.
Thanks!
CloudyBeep 3 points 1y ago
Look into audio description and touch tours. Theater has been accessible for blind people for the last 35 years, so there is already a lot of precedent and best practice. If there are audio describers in your country, you should hire them to do this rather than doing it yourself so that the quality is better. If the quality is better, patrons will return.
vicvilhson [OP] 3 points 1y ago
Hey!
We have already looked into audio description which will be done by professionals for the theatre performaces.
For the conferece/ workshoo there will be guides from the groups/ communities that have already agreed to help us with the program and the touch tour we have planned with props and costumes.
I agree that if the quality will be good, people will return, the goal of this post is to increase the quality as much as possible!
Thank you for your imput!!
We have already looked into audio description which will be done by professionals for the theatre performaces.
For the conferece/ workshoo there will be guides from the groups/ communities that have already agreed to help us with the program and the touch tour we have planned with props and costumes.
I agree that if the quality will be good, people will return, the goal of this post is to increase the quality as much as possible!
Thank you for your imput!!
[deleted] 2 points 1y ago
[deleted]
vicvilhson [OP] 1 points 1y ago
That's a great idea. I will bring it forward as a suggestion in a meeting!
This nonprofit website is run by volunteers.
Please contribute if you can. Thank you!
Our mission is to provide everyone with access to large-
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
©2023 HumbleCat Inc • HumbleCat is a 501(c)3 nonprofit based in Michigan, USA.