Making The Arts Accessible: Recent Episodes
Alice Gilmour
Alice Gilmour interviews people who make the arts accessible, including audio describers, BSL interpreters, technology experts, disability experts, theatre managers, community outreach workers, and more.
Tim Yates leads the Research and Innovation Programme at Drake Music, an organisation dedicated to helping musicians with disabilities discover or co-design instruments that work for them. Collaborating with tech companies, coders, and instrument makers, they are pushing the boundaries where music and technology meet.
When we spoke in May, Tim explained how Drake Music is working to develop a kind of one-stop hub—a database and showcase space—for the many inventions and creative ideas emerging in this field. The aim is to share these innovations more widely and make them accessible to all.
Links:
Drake Music
https://www.drakemusic.org/
Tim Yates (page on DrakeMusic website)
https://www.drakemusic.org/team/11116/
Paraorchestra
https://paraorchestra.com/
The Kellycaster
https://www.drakemusic.org/technology/instruments-projects/the-kellycaster/
MiMU Gloves
https://mimugloves.com/gloves/
Sony - Inclusive Design
https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/accessibility/initiatives/
OrchLab at the London Philharmonic Orchestra
https://lpo.org.uk/project/orchlab/
Thanks for listening! You can see all episodes on my website www.alicegilmour.com.
This is a detailed and comprehensive chat about the technology used in theatres for assistive listening and audio description. James has a huge amount of knowledge and experience in this area, and we look at all the different options out there - loop systems, infrared, radio, WiFi, and Bluetooth including Auracast - and discuss the pros and cons of each one.
Links:
James Bottrill - email
orchard.audio.services@gmail.com
Ampetronic
https://www.ampetronic.com/
Listen Technologies
https://www.listentech.com/
Sennheiser
https://www.sennheiser.com/
Williams
https://williamsav.com/
Thanks for listening! You can see all episodes on my website www.alicegilmour.com.
Paul Adams is currently Access Project Manager for The Royal Ballet and Opera in London and has been there just over a year. Before that he worked in Singapore, and has spent his career in creative learning departments working hard to make the arts accessible. We have a chat about what it’s like working for such a large organisation, tips and hints he has for effecting change, and things he thinks have worked well, and others which have been more of a learning curve. I hope you enjoy it.
Links
Royal Ballet and Opera
https://www.rbo.org.uk/
Paul’s page on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-anthony-adams-a-world-with-access-to-arts-experiences-for-all-8288a821/
Ramps on the Moon Project
https://rampsonthemoon.co.uk/
ATG Theatres – access page
https://www.atgtickets.com/access/
Devon Healey
https://discover.research.utoronto.ca/32146-devon-healey
Paul Hamlyn Christmas Treat
https://www.rbo.org.uk/learning/families/paul-hamlyn-christmas-treat
The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party – ZooNation
https://www.rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-events/the-mad-hatters-tea-party-details
Singapore Theatre’s Inclusive Young Company
https://www.srt.com.sg/young-company-past-productions
Thanks for listening! You can see all episodes on my website www.alicegilmour.com.
In this episode, recorded at Tom and Caroline's house, we have a great discussion about audio description. Tom is a general all-round arts-lover and has been blind all his life so has used audio description for many years now, particularly for theatre, opera and for historic buildings. And Caroline, his wife, has supported him in this, and was on the board of Vocaleyes for five years. So they are both full of lots of thoughts on what works, what doesn't and how people can make their work or their space accessible to blind people.
Thanks for listening! You can follow me on Twitter, or for all podcast episodes, and other things including my sounds blog (slog?), visit my website www.alicegilmour.com.
Ben Wilson is an actor, theatre-maker, audio description consultant and recently became Extant's new trainee Artistic Director for 23-24. We have a chat about all these things including how he combines these different roles, what it's like being a portfolio career like so many of us are in the arts, on his requirements as a blind actor, on questions like why do West End shows have different access providers every week in each different venue, and should arts organisations and directors who have never cast a disabled actor on their stage still be given a platform!
Links
Extant Theatre
https://extant.org.uk/
Graeae Theatre
https://graeae.org/
Ramps on the Moon Project
https://rampsonthemoon.co.uk/
Sheffield Theatres
www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
Oliver Twist – NT At Home
https://www.ntathome.com/products/oliver-twist
Georgie Morrell – comedian, actor, writer
http://georgiemorrell.co.uk/
Thanks for listening! You can follow me on Twitter, or for all podcast episodes, and other things including my sounds blog (slog?), visit my website www.alicegilmour.com.
In this episode, I'm talking to Emily Malen who is Front of House and Access Development Manager at Theatre Royal Nottingham and Royal Concert Hall. What she stresses is the importance of listening and learning from your audiences, and always pushing forward, looking at the latest technology, training your staff, communicating with every department in the building, and also your visiting audience, and visiting show.
Links
Royal Theatre Nottingham and Royal Concert Hall
https://trch.co.uk/whats-on/
Attitude is Everything
https://attitudeiseverything.org.uk/
Vocaleyes – audio description listings and information
https://vocaleyes.co.uk/
StageText – captions in theatre
https://www.stagetext.org/
TheatreSign – BSL interpreters and performances
https://theatresign.com/
Signed Culture – supporting BSL access to the arts
https://www.signedculture.org.uk/
Thanks for listening! You can follow me on Twitter, or for all podcast episodes, and other things including my sounds blog (slog?), visit my website www.alicegilmour.com.
I talk to Jonathan Suffolk, Director of Production at The Curve, Leicester who headed up the team at The National Theatre who developed their smart caption glasses. These augmented reality glasses provide captions for people who are D/deaf or hard of hearing, without them having to turn and read captions on a screen at the side or over the top of a stage. We get quite techy and hear how it all works in detail. And he talks very honestly about how access works in a major theatre and how it rubs up against the eternal economic difficulties in the arts.
Links:
The National Theatre Caption Glasses
https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/your-visit/access/caption-glasses
The National Theatre, London, UK
https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
Leicester Curve Theatre
https://www.curveonline.co.uk/
Stagetext – providing captions for theatres
https://www.stagetext.org/
Galapro – providing captions and audio descriptions to phones
https://playbill.com/article/the-new-technology-about-to-revolutionize-broadway
The Arts Council’s ‘Let’s Create’ strategy
https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/lets-create
Thanks for listening! You can follow me on Twitter, or for all podcast episodes, and other things including my sounds blog (slog?), visit my website www.alicegilmour.com.
In this episode, I talk to Hannah Thompson, Professor of French and Critical Disability studies at Royal Holloway, University of London, who describes herself as partially blind and is an expert in audio description. She recently co-created a FutureLearn course on audio description called ‘Creating Audio Description: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’, which explores how to design and create audio descriptions and audio introductions for TV, film and theatre, and she's full of fascinating insights on how audio description can become part of the creative process which ultimately makes a better artistic product, whilst improving the audio description experience for the user.
Links:
Hannah Thompson
http://hannah-thompson.blogspot.com/
Future Learn course - Creating Audio Description: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/creating-audio-description-for-equality-diversity-and-inclusion
The Smartify app (sign up and search for The Royal Holloway Art Gallery)
https://smartify.org/
Play Flightpaths by Extant
https://extant.org.uk/productions/digital-flight-paths/
Watch here
https://flightpaths.extant.org.uk/
Vocaleyes website
https://vocaleyes.co.uk/
Thanks for listening! You can follow me on Twitter, or for all podcast episodes, and other things including my sounds blog (slog?), visit my website www.alicegilmour.com.
In this conversation, I hear from actor Dan Parr about how he first got into audio describing whilst performing in Road at Leeds Playhouse, and how he and three other actors from that show have gone on to create their own company, Hear The Picture, where they create audio description in character, based in Sheffield.
Links
https://twitter.com/hearthepicture?lang=en
Hear The Picture – an actor led audio description company where they describe in character
https://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/
A theatre complex in Sheffield, comprising the Crucible, the Lyceum and the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse. These theatres make up the largest regional theatre complex outside the London region and show a variety of in-house and touring productions.
https://leedsplayhouse.org.uk/
One of the largest producing theatres in the north, and awarded the UK's Most Welcoming Theatre at the UK Theatre Awards 2022.
https://www.rampsonthemoon.co.uk/
A collaborative project between six different UK theatres aiming to enrich the stories we tell and the way we tell them by normalising the presence of D/deaf and disabled people both on and off stage.
https://graeae.org/
World class theatre and training from D/deaf and disabled artists
https://cripticarts.org/
They produce work with deaf and disabled artists, support deaf and disabled people in the arts, and support other organisations with training
I talk to Jonathan Penny about audio description for TV. He worked at ITV and is now at Channel 4 heading up their access services. And we also cover a bit about live subtitles, and how TV companies are starting to look at creating audio introductions to help blind and partially sighted viewers have more information about a show before watching it as there is only so much you can describe within the show.
Links
ITV's accessibility inbox - accessibility@itv.com - for comments/complaints/to find out more about the users' forum
ITV's accessibility statement - https://www.itv.com/terms/articles/accessibility
VocalEyes – www.vocaleyes.co.uk
FutureLearn course - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/creating-audio-description-for-equality-diversity-and-inclusion
Trigger Point character introductions - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oJazqxGxSA
Scottish Opera Audio Described performances - https://www.scottishopera.org.uk/discover-opera/accessible-performances/
My conversation with Paul who is a BSL interpreter, covered how he prepares to sign an opera, what more theatres can do to welcome D/deaf audiences, and a look back at some of the wonderful shows he has signed over the years.
Paul's website:
http://www.paulwhittaker.org.uk/
Opera North upcoming signed performances
https://www.operanorth.co.uk/access/signed-performances/
I chat to Philippa about her work with Talking Birds theatre company in Coventry and especially the invention of a mobile captioning system - The Difference Engine. With this system, people can get captions on their phones which is particularly useful for smaller arts organisations (it's very reasonable!), and for events held in unusual spaces. Philippa also talks about how they created a Citizens Assembly during the Coventry City of Culture which means local people now have a say in the artistic and creative vision for the city.
Links
Talking Birds Theatre Company
https://talkingbirds.co.uk
The Difference Engine
https://talkingbirds.co.uk/de
Shoot Festival, Access Coventry, and Artists’ Manifesto
https://www.coventryshootfestival.com/access-coventry
In this episode, I talk to Vicky about her work as an audio describer, and an access champion, what she thinks of relaxed performances, and her work with Mind The Gap which champions access to creative careers for disabled artists. And there's a good story about a pie.
Links
Jack Thorne, McTaggart Lecture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxUZPMBRIPU
Vicky’s Disability and Equality Training Company
https://totallyinclusivepeople.com/
Vocaleyes – the UK’s audio description organisation
https://vocaleyes.co.uk/
Mind The Gap, England's leading learning disability performance and live arts company.
https://www.mind-the-gap.org.uk/