New York City to Help Small Theaters Be More Accessible

NEW YORK — In an effort to make theater more accessible to deaf and blind people, New York City will give grants to off-Broadway and other small theaters to install software that allows patrons to follow along with low-light smartphones and tablets.

The city’s commissioner of media and entertainment, Julie Menin, said the new program was part of an effort to make theater more widely available. “We think it will increase audiences at independent theaters throughout the city, and it’s incredibly important for people who are deaf or blind,” she said.

The city will provide money for theaters to install software by a company called GalaPro, which is already used at Shubert theaters on Broadway, as well as at Roundabout theaters and several others. The city recently paid for the installation of the software at Playwrights Horizons, an off-Broadway nonprofit.

The software, using voice recognition, can provide closed captioning of the spoken word, or audio description of stage action, on users’ mobile devices; the app is supposed to be lit in such a way as not to be distracting to other theater patrons.

It is part of a wave of experimentation with new ways of making theater more accessible, and there have been a variety of efforts to accommodate people who are deaf or hard of hearing, including sign language, supertitles and glasses with captions.

DJ Kurs, artistic director of Deaf West Theater, said in an email that “each step in the push for accessibility is a step in the right direction.” But he said every technology has drawbacks — in the case of GalaPro, he said, holding up a phone during a show could be tiring for some theatergoers, and “I think it’s going to be a niche product unless they find a way to make it more palatable.” But, he said, “I see a lot of theater, both captioned and interpreted (my preference) shows, and I’ll take what I can get each time.”