Defying Disability #1 - People's Light Theatre

Audience members at People's Light utilizing the caption glasses

Hello! And welcome to what is the first installment of a new series for this blog, which I am calling Defying Disability. This series will be dedicated to theatre companies everywhere that are actively working to help actors with disabilities, and also help disabled audience members have a more accessible and enjoyable experience. I am so excited to share this series with you and to shine a light on companies making a difference.

For the first installment in the series, I have chosen People's Light Theatre, located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. People's Light is among one of the first theatre companies in the country to test out new "high-tech caption glasses", during their recent production of Dot, which ran from September 18 - October 20, with the testing of the glasses occurring from October 1-13, and I am so proud that I was able to collaborate directly with People's Light Theatre on this entry!

In a press release distributed on September 20th, Abigial Adams, People's Lights Executive Artistic Director, was quoted talking about how People's Light prioritizes inclusion of all at their performances,

"As a gathering center for cultural and civic exchange, People’s Light prioritizes meaningful inclusion and equitable arts experiences for all. The smart caption glasses solution is urgently needed for our visitors, and across the field. To create a theatre that welcomes all and excludes none is no longer a lofty aspiration, it has become the daily work of People’s Light.”

According to an article published in the Philadelphia Inquirer on October 22, the glasses work as follows: as the actor on stage is talking, as they were in a recent production, the words would appear on the inside of the audience members lenses - predominantly along the bottom of the lens so that it would not block the audience members view of the stage. One thing I personally like about the glasses from reading the article is that "users had the ability to change the font size, color, and text placement with a tap of a finger on a small touch pad. They even could choose whether to have the text scroll or skip from one line to the next."

Caption glasses People's Light used during the run of Dot.

The Smart Caption Glasses were originally brought to the United States in partnership with the National Theatre of Great Britain and the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University, and then through a grant acquired through the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation totaling $50,000, were given to People's Light. People's Light then pre-selected participants who came to see the production  to use the glasses as a test run. The glasses proved to be very popular, and starting in January, the glasses will be free to all patrons and can be reserved online in advance of the show, or even on the same day that the audience member will be seeing the show.

The concept of captions is not new to theatre. In fact, many stage productions in companies across the country and world offer "open captions", meaning they will put the words the actors are speaking on a screen to one side of the stage or hung from above so every patron has an opportunity to see them. However, this comes with limitations - usually in the form of being offered at a limited number of shows in a run, or at less popular show times/days, or that the text can be off to the side of the stage or above it, which can divert the audience members eyes away from the stage, and unfortunately because of this many people in the deaf/heard of hearing and vision impaired community are apprehensive about using devices such as this due to the stigma and worry of standing out in the crowd or because the technology is too complicated for someone to use. Further, many times staff at theatre companies may not know how to fix the technology if it would glitch or break, or even the possibility of something as simple as batteries in the devices not being charged.

People's Light, however, looked at these issues other companies have faced that used similar technologies and worked hard to make sure it did not happen to them - specifically, they had staff members who had been trained to use the technology on hand to help should an issue arise so that it could be fixed quickly. Alan Kutner, President of the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA)-Delaware County Chapter of Pennsylvania, spoke very highly of the glasses and other advances in helping disabled audience goers when quoted in the previously mentioned press release, saying:

"It will be so exciting for theatergoers with hearing loss to again enjoy the many venues that they had to give up years before. The upgrading of devices to help those who are hard of hearing has been a revolution in recent times. It is so exciting to be alive and witness this dramatic progress!”

Having said all of that, there are downfalls to these glasses, particularly in terms of cost. While People's Light was able to acquire these glasses through the previously mentioned grant, the model that was used costs about $1,200 off the shelf, which for many people and smaller theatre companies is a considerable amount of money. But if a company or individual can obtain a grant as this company did or has the funds to obtain the technology, I personally believe these glasses could be a wonderful investment.

Cheers to you, People's Light Theatre! It is because of theatre's like yours that we are slowly but surely ending the stigma of disability!

You can find People's Light on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin!