British Sign Language (BSL) Interpreted Performances

British Sign Language (BSL) interpreted performances enable Deaf BSL users to understand the performance through the signs of an interpreter, who translates the spoken language into BSL. The position of the BSL interpreter will usually be indicated on the seating plan.

Integrated BSL - performances with integrated BSL interpretation involve the interpreter being part of the action onstage.

Captioned Performances

Theatre captions are similar to television subtitles and convert spoken word in to visible text that provides those who are Deaf, deafened or hard of hearing with access to live performances.

Open captions are displayed on screens at either side of the stage for all audience members to view.

Closed captions can be viewed on your mobile device via a FREE app called The Difference Engine, when available.

Film - Descriptive Captions (HOH Subtitles / SDH)

Descriptive captions refer to subtitles intended for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. They are also known as HOH (Hard of Hearing) subtitles or SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing).

These subtitles are a transcription rather than a just translation; in addition to reproducing dialogue, they aim to describe additional non-dialogue sounds available to a hearing audience, e.g. “(sighs)” or “(door creaks)” and song lyrics. In our experience viewers do not find the subtitles distracting, especially as a lot of our films are subtitled as foreign language films. Please check listings to see if your chosen film will have descriptive captions available.