AMERICAN THEATRE: During the final open-captioned performance of Colman Domingo’s Dot at People’s Light, the LED screens that transmit the play’s text to the audience malfunctioned near the end of the first act. The Malvern, Pa., venue offers more than 50 captioned performances each season. Mostly it’s smooth sailing, but the possibility of such a snafu always lingers.
7 comments:
I think that the work they’re doing at People’s Light is really admirable and their game plan for even further improvements is a philosophy that more theatres should get behind. I was really excited to hear about the technology of the Smart Caption Glasses being implemented in such an accessible way to the public. I had previously known that this technology existed but didn’t think it was really in the range of accessibility for a theatre to use. Granted 1,200 a pair is not insignificant but hopefully as technology improves they’ll become even more affordable so that most theatres will be able to offer the service to their audience. The company seems to be incredibly enthusiastic about their mission to make theatre more accessible and have great ideas to enhance their current practices even further. They’re even putting pressure on companies they’re partnered with to improve their technologies. From what the article says it seems that their efforts are being meant with a great reception from the community as well.
This is such a humbling and inclusive endeavor. I truly admire National Theatre, Temple University, and all other venues which are piloting the Smart Caption Glasses. Losing my ability to hear, whether partially or completely, would be devastating, especially with my fondness for FOH mixing. Granted, the Smart Caption Glasses would not allow a hard of hearing person to be able to mix from front of house, but to give them the ability to return to the theatre and once again enjoy this spectacular artform would be priceless. That being said, there is the matter of price. The article said $1200 per unit, but looking more into the glasses themselves, I found two Epson models which go for $600 and $900. That being said, there is likely additional expense for transmitters and software, but these prices are slightly steep. Then again, they will last and can be used many times, and with an initial investment, they likely be paid off in the end. The initial investment will be nothing compared to the pricelessness of giving hard of hearing theatre patrons the ability to watch shows with almost complete freedom once again.
For much of the world, going to see a live theatrical event is a night of fun and enjoyment. However, people with disabilities may not think so. That is why what People's Light is doing to help those with hard of hearing disabilities is so important to the theater community. Making live theater accessible to everyone and enjoyable for everyone should be the main goal of so many theaters across the world. The Smart Caption Glasses are hopefully one big step in the right direction. These glasses sound like they are out of a sci-fi film, but in this day and age it has become reality. The hardest part now is getting other theaters across the US and globe to invest in these glasses and make more shows accessible. I really like how in the article one of People's Light's goals is to have anyone with disabilities walk into a theater, buy a ticket and watch a show without having to worry about it being accessible. Hopefully the price of $1200 per glasses will go down in the future with the increased use of them and the new technology at hand.
I love that People's Light is making theatre more accessible for people with hearing disabilities. When I was seeing a few shows at OSF a few years ago, I noticed that there were two people at the front of the stage, lit the whole time, and performing in sign language to the sections of people with hearing disabilities. I thought that that was very interesting, and then reading about these glasses reminded me how amazing it is that people are going to such great lengths to make theatre for accessible for everyone. I feel like since these glasses are so expensive, it becomes more of the job of the theatre company to find a way to make it accessible, rather than making people with hearing disabilities pay even more to accommodate for themselves. We should be helping and making it more accessible without an extra expense for the audience members/
I definitely think that I have read an article regarding these smart caption glasses at People’s Light before but I will comment again because I just think that they are phenomenal. The work that People’s Light is doing in terms of accessibility is mind-boggling (which it should not be, but accessibility in the arts is a problem that too few people are working on addressing). I have been to several performances where there has been an interpretation in American Sign Language in a specific section of the performance space for those who are hard-of-hearing or deaf and, while this is great and sometimes even preferred for some audience members, it also singles out those who have a hearing disability while simultaneously excluding those who may have lost their hearing but do not understand American Sign Language. With these glasses, so long as you can read, they are able to be used; they also offer a much more whole experience as they do not require the user to look towards a screen, supertitles, or translators and can instead experience the piece just as fully and as it was intended as the rest of the audience.
I’ve seen things about this new development from multiple sources, and I think this is a really elegant solution to the problem of captioning. In digital media, the captioning process is simpler due to the constant nature of whatever is being watched and the more individual experience. Most of us don’t have to take captions into consideration, we simply assume they will be there as an option if we want them and ignore them if we don’t. This attitude does not necessarily translate to live entertainment. Deaf and hard of hearing people have to take the accessibility of venues into account every time they hope to see a performance of some nature. By providing these smart glasses, the theater doesn’t single them out in some way or disrupt the show for others for whom captions may be distracting rather than necessary, while still creating accessibility. I think part of the reason the smart glasses such as the Google Glass never took off was that it was focused on a very niche group of people and the functionalities it offered could be more quickly and easily done with other technology - perhaps if they had considered applications like this, and asked what is unique about augmented reality as a medium, they could actually have created a useful product.
It’s a wonder that it’s taken so long for something like caption glasses to start entering the theatre industry. The technology is somewhat new, but the first commercial smart glasses have been around for several years now, and it seems like a perfect application for the technology. At over one thousand dollars per pair of the glasses, it’s certainly an investment, but even just a few sets at a theatre could allow disabled persons to enjoy theatre in a way they have largely been disallowed to. Spread out over the cost of a season, most theatres could afford to invest in this technology, at least incrementally. Not to mention that it’s hardly a profitless investment. There are huge underserved audiences that would benefit from technology like this, and who would very likely be willing to buy tickets if their needs were addressed. Investing in disability accommodating technology is a win win for patrons and theaters.
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