Achieving better theatres today

Published Thursday 3 June 2004 at 15:45

As the deadline for the Disability Discrimination Act approaches, Anna Webb discusses the ways in which theatres can meet the demands made of them and advises attending this year’s ABTT Theatre Show on June 16-17, where a host of companies will showcase the various options available

As we move into spring 2004, October’s looming date for the Disability Discrimination Act to come into force is rapidly approaching. This is why theatres nationwide are busy addressing the many complex issues surrounding this new legislation.

For many old theatres, such as those in the West End, making their venues totally accessible from a physical point of view is not always possible for a variety of reasons, including the restrictions imposed on listed buildings. In these circumstances, the DDA is sympathetic to access solutions being reasonably achieved in such cases.

There are, however, relatively inexpensive ways to assist people with sensory disabilities. An estimated five million people in the UK have some form of visual or hearing disability and most theatres should be able to provide subtitles or captioning and signed performances for hearing impaired patrons and audio description for partially sighted and blind patrons. They should also provide information in other formats, eg large print and tape.

The ADAPT Trust - Access for Disabled People to Arts Premises Today, a charity founded in 1989 - has become a lead agency operating nationwide that advises and assists arts and heritage venues to create effective access for everyone. Headed by Stewart Coulter, the organisation offers a new service known as Sight & Sound, exclusively offering assistance to improve access for people with sensory impairments. In addition, ADAPT offers an access consultancy/auditing service, giving preliminary and detailed advice and disability awareness training.

Providing sensory access is a fairly straightforward matter, as venues old and new need not alter their premises structurally to offer this service.

The key to the solution is to offer dual-channel systems, either through infrared or radio frequency based systems. These solutions can both simultaneously transmit hearing reinforcement to the hard of hearing and audio description through discrete headsets to the sight-impaired person.

Audio description can be supplied either by in-house staff or through independent organisations such as London-based VOCALEYES, whose team of audio describers operate nationwide, providing verbal commentary describing the stage, set, characters, costumes, facial expression, body language and action during the silent parts of the show.

Infrared or radio based, the solution is the same. The skill is to provide a system that best meets a theatre’s requirements. In venues where the layout of the set is altered dramatically between shows, an infrared system can have limitations as it operates directionally. Changes in the location of the pros arch or to the layout in the auditorium can affect the directional availability of the signal. For outdoor productions, a radio solution is the only option as infrared signals are damaged by sunlight. Whereas for theatres situated in built-up areas where radio frequency interference can occur, such as the West End, infrared systems are a more effective solution. London-based Orbital Sound does offer a digital audio radio-based product from Sennheiser, guidePORT, which overcomes these obstacles.

In the past many theatres have installed induction loop systems, which are an effective and discrete option for the hard of hearing, but they cannot provide the second audio channel, which is now essential to facilitate audio description.

Orbital’s sales and installations division has recently supplied a plethora of infrared systems, manufactured by Sennheiser, into theatres nationwide to either operate alongside an induction loop system, or in some cases replacing it completely so that the overall systems’ maintenance can be minimised and streamlined systems’ management maximised.

Ambassador Theatre Group’s building services manager, Richard Kiernan, collaborated with ADAPT to ensure that their 22 theatres nationwide are fully sensory aware. Despite working in many Grade II listed buildings, including the Piccadilly Theatre, the Duke of York’s, The Playhouse and Wyndhams theatres, where heritage restrictions reign, the group has ensured that every venue is sensory friendly.

By installing a fleet of infrared systems supplied by Orbital, the group will offer at least one audio transcribed show during every production’s run. The group is investigating the opportunity to offer a captioning service, to help hard of hearing and deaf people further augment their theatre experience.

Captioning is a way of converting the spoken word into visible text, which makes it possible for those with hearing impairments to further access live performances. Stagetext offers a solution, which, via data cabling or a wireless link, offers real-time captions on an LED-scrolling screen. It also captures sound effects and off stage noises and can be offered in a number of languages.

Under the supervision of access officer Pat Collcutt, The RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon was the first theatre in the UK to offer audio description and maintains a strict policy that at least two shows per run are fully sensory enabled.

Having recently installed its own captioning system, the RSC has also introduced a radio based dual channel system. A Sennheiser UHF 300 series in-ear monitoring system was installed by AVT Communications and offers complete freedom to receive a signal anywhere in the building. This allows a sight-impaired patron to enjoy a drink at the bar, for example, while listening to an audio-transcribed introduction of the theatre show.

Pat Collcutt, like Richard Kiernan, maintains that once the equipment has been installed, a budget must be made available to maintain and service the equipment regularly. It is also vital to offer training programs to ensure that the FOH staff, in particular, are conversant with the latest issues.

Active promotion by in-house marketing teams and indeed individual production companies is also imperative to ensure that the availability of sensory access is communicated through access friendly web-sites, programs and organisations such as the RNID and RNIB.

The ABTT Theatre Show, the only dedicated technical forum for theatre professionals in the UK, offers the opportunity to meet a host of companies, including Orbital Sound, Sennheiser, Sound Associates, Trantec, VOCALEYES, and Terry’s Lifts, who will all showcase their diverse products and services designed to provide access solutions in line with the impending DDA. The exhibition will take place at the Royal Horticultural Halls on June 16-17.