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17/5/05 - Grant awarded for captioning in Scotland

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STAGETEXT, the charity which provides access to the theatre for deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people, has been awarded a two-year grant from the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) to set up captioning in Scotland.

STAGETEXT aims to caption 15 theatre performances in the first year and 20 in year 2, as well as develop press and PR initiatives around captioned shows and market them to local deaf and hard of hearing audiences. Plans are also under way to train two captioners who will be based in Scotland.

Captions are similar to television subtitles but have a number of distinct features which include indicating speaker names, sound effects and offstage noises. A trained STAGETEXT captioner prepares the script in advance so that it mirrors the rhythm and flow of the performances on stage. The captioner then sends them to a display unit (or units) so that deaf and hard of hearing audience members can follow what is said at the same time as everyone else.

“Having a captioning hub in Scotland will ensure that venues can afford to offer captioned performances,” said Tabitha Allum, Chief Executive of STAGETEXT. “It is obviously far more cost-effective to have local captioners, equipment and technical support rather than having to send people up from London. It will also mean that responsibility for developing audiences will lie locally.”

STAGETEXT, which was established in May 2000 by three deaf people, now captions around 100 shows a year in all kinds of venues.

For further information on STAGETEXT, please visit our website (www.stagetext.org) or email us at [email protected]

STAGETEXT, York House, Empire Way, Wembley HA9 0PA
Telephone/Textphone: 020 8903 5566 Fax: 020 8903 8647

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