A number of performance venues across the country are participating in Captioning Awareness Week which runs from 11 November.
Little Baby Jesus (Orange Tree Theatre), Seagulls (Octagon Bolton), Sister Act (Watford Palace Theatre), A History of Water in the Middle East (Royal Court Theatre London) and Mamma Mia! (Novello Theatre London) are just some of the many shows that will having subtitled performances as part of this year's campaign.
One in six people in the UK are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing yet only 19% of theatres advertise captioned performances.
Of the 11 million people with hearing impairment, fewer than 1% are fluent in British Sign Language so subtitling is an important strategy in improving access to arts events.
Stagetext, which coordinates the campaign, is calling for arts venues to build accessibility into their strategy benefiting the venue with new audiences and improving people’s experiences within the arts.
Captioning Awareness Week will take place from 11 to 17 November at arts venues of all kinds across the country; theatres include London (National Theatre, British Library), Sheffield (Sheffield Theatres), Bolton, Watford and Hull. A full list of is available from Stagetext.