UK theatre to trial subtitling glasses technology

The National Theatre is to trial new augmented reality glasses with the aim of providing subtitles to deaf and hard of hearing audience members.

There is much potential in this technology and it is great to see it finally arrive in the UK. With some refinements, it could go along way to providing true equality and accessibility in entertainment venues such as theatres and cinema. Use of these glasses would allow those who depend on subtitling to attend the normal showings of performances, as opposed to waiting for the rather more limited special subtitled performances.

The bbc has a short subtitled video clip about the devices which you can watch at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-41491953/national-theatre-specs-create-floating-subtitles

While we wait for this technology to become more widespread, why not sign the petition from Ellie (Deafie Blogger) to encourage cinemas to show more movies with subtitles? You can find information on this at https://www.hearinglink.org/news/hearing-loss-news/accessible-cinema-petition/