Stagetext has received a £20,000 grant from the National Lottery Community Fund for a community outreach project which will help raise awareness of deaf access to arts and culture in the South East of England.
The project will support Stagetext’s team of ambassadors to build relationships with deaf groups and deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people across the area to spread the word about accessible events.
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 culture venues are unaware that they are available.
By sharing their experience of the difference captions and live subtitles can make, deaf Ambassadors will help promote the benefits of deaf access; and show theatres, museums and event venues that there are keen deaf audiences who would love to attend more events if more access options were available.
Melanie Sharpe, CEO of Stagetext said: “We are thrilled to receive the grant from the National Lottery Community Fund. By helping to spread the word about theatre captions and live subtitles for museum talks and tours, we can bring more people to arts and culture. It’s not only transformative for those that are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing, but it makes economic sense for the venues too.
“Our research has revealed that 74% of people said subtitles made a positive difference to their experience, with 35% saying the experience was a lot better. With 77% in favour of venues offering more deaf accessibility via captioning and live subtitled performances and events to deaf, deafened and hard of hearing audiences [1], there’s lots of reasons for venues to include deaf access.”
Kathryn, an ambassador for Stagetext said: “I’m delighted that Stagetext has received the funding for this outreach project to introduce theatre captions to potential audiences. Going to the theatre and seeing captions for the first time was life-changing for me, and for my family and friends, but currently many others are unaware that captions exist and are widely available. The Stagetext outreach project will show how they can still fully appreciate theatre performances.”
[1] Research conducted by Sapio on behalf of Stagetext - Oct 2021.
