Stagetext is a charity for deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people, which works to break down barriers and increase access to the arts through accurate captioning and live subtitling. Stagetext’s captioning and live subtitles also supports neurodivergent people, people who have English as an additional language and anybody who values having the additionality of seeing what's being verbalised on stage or screen.
Last year, the Arts Council-funded organisation achieved 413 captioned shows of its own as well as offered support to another 800 in-house productions and 614 live subtitling events across museums, galleries, events and conferences. Driven by user opinion, experience and needs, the work Stagetext is doing is largely influenced by the audience it targets.
We interviewed Melanie Sharpe, CEO of Stagetext, to learn more about how the organisation engages with the end user and the cultural sector simultaneously and how its work brings the two together. We also learn more about the main problems Stagetext seeks to address, how it engages audiences and what Melanie believes are the risks of not addressing EDI in the arts sector.
What are your motivations for addressing diversity and inclusion in your organisation?
Stagetext is a deaf-led charity. Therefore, all our work is underpinned by the principles of EDI access for deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people to engage in arts and culture. Stagetext was created 25 years ago by three people who were passionate about the arts. They had various forms of deafness, and they saw some captioning that had come from America and they wondered why the UK didn't have the same. So, Stagetext grew out of necessity and the principles of inclusion have always underpinned everything we do. It's all about providing equal access so that everybody gains what they need in order to fully understand what is going on and have the same experience.
What are your main goals?
That we don't need to exist anymore because everything is accessible. I know that's an enormous goal but we want access for deaf and hard of hearing people to become everyday— not an add-on. It should be integrated and integral to everything we plan and do in putting on a piece of public culture. That's the overriding principle of Stagetext—that subtitles and captions become the norm and culture is fully accessible for people.
Can you tell us more about what Stagetext offers in the arts EDI space?
At Stagetext, we have different approaches to captions and subtitles depending on the type of content. We are well known for providing theatre captioning for live, scripted performance. A captioned script is prepared meticulously in advance, so that it matches the spoken word perfectly and also includes accessible elements, such as character names and descriptions of sounds and music. These captions are then displayed on screens, usually either side of the stage, and are cued by a human being in time with the actors and what they're saying. We cue the text exactly when the actor is speaking, and we pause when the actor pauses. We don't want one set of people getting a joke before another set of people. Captioned scripts are prepared to be as accurate as possible because we want deaf people to have the same experience as everybody else in the audience.
For unscripted speech, we use live subtitling, which is subtitles typed in real-time. Speech-to-text reporters (or palantypists) are highly trained professionals who use phonetic keyboards to produce subtitles in real time. We use the top 3% of speech-to-text reporters in the UK and they, on the whole, are 97-98% accurate. As I mentioned earlier, we add accessible elements such as people's names, and we don't edit as we go along because it's not our job to edit people. Our job is to make sure that deaf people are getting the same experience as everybody else in the room.
We also provide digital subtitling, which is for pre-recorded video content. This helps to create a seamless experience—so, if you want to go and see a play and there's a trailer on the website, that trailer needs to be accessible as well.
We also provide deaf awareness training for organisations who want to learn how to welcome deaf, deafened and hard of hearing audiences into their venues.
What is the main problem Stagetext seeks to address?
The latest figures from RNID show that 18 million adults in the UK are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing. We are working to make as much culture as possible accessible to this very large audience group, and to raise awareness of the existence of captioning to everyone who might benefit.
What we do is all about engagement with the cultural sector, and ensuring everybody has a rightful place at the table, because nobody should be excluded.
Can you describe what goes into captioning a performance?
There can be a perception that if you put the script on a screen then you've got accessible captions—but that's not the case. Scripts develop, and actors deliver their lines differently. The point of captioning is to give a quality experience that matches what is being said, not an approximation.
A highly trained captioner takes the script and formats it. They then watch a video of the performance, and see the show in advance for a script check. A captioner needs to really understand the performance; they can do 40 hours, 50 hours, 60 hours preparation because it's quite a complex process.
We can provide caption boxes and a technician. We support venues on the best place to put the boxes, and our theatre manager will usually visit beforehand, to speak to the production team and find out where the lighting is going to be. Where the caption boxes sit within the venue is really important for accessible visibility. There are usually two on either side of the stage, which informs the box office on where to sell the tickets with the best sightlines.
How do you approach engagement with your audience?
We have two main audiences: cultural professionals and deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people.
About four years ago, we re-envisaged our offering to cultural professionals, reflecting on how we act as a partner to the sector, not just a service provider. We’re committed to sharing our knowledge, experience and understanding so that more great quality access is available overall. This means that we are offering more training, and sharing resources like our captioning display standards, which set out the principles of making text accessible in theatres.
In terms of reaching deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people, we seek to use research, outreach and our annual Captioning Awareness Week campaign to reach out to a wider range of deaf people, and hopefully to get the general public on board with captioning too.
What outreach and engagement methods are you using?
A really obvious way for us is that we advertise what we do. We have a website that lists all the captioned performances and subtitled events—and it's not just what we do, it's also what other people do. If it's captioned by other people or if it's in-house, we put it on our website so you'll find the majority of captioned or live subtitled events in one place. Plus, there's a search functionality so people can search by region, by a specific theatre or by whatever criteria they need for an event.
We have a mailing list that tells people about captioned performances in advance. We also have a venue mailing list and we send newsletters out to cultural professionals. We also use social media platforms a lot to promote ourselves and what other people are doing. If there are articles we think are interesting, we engage in debates and topics with other people.
We have volunteer ambassadors that will go to a venue where we’re captioning, and talk to people, saying, 'Hey, this is captioning, isn't it marvellous?'. They'll hand out leaflets and engage with audiences. We also go to open days and community events; we engage in multiple prongs of outreach. We're engaging with the end user but we're also engaging with the cultural sector as well. It's our job to bring the two together.
What do you think makes your EDI work successful?
Putting deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people at the heart of everything we do. 60% of our staff are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing and 60% of our board are as well; we're always deaf-led.
What have been the challenges, barriers or limitations to getting live captioning into the arts?
I think there are two main things. One is the obvious one of money—the arts are struggling financially and people are cutting corners. People look at a budget and where they can cut costs and unfortunately, although they genuinely believe in access, they're pressured to make savings.
Alongside that is a lack of planning, a lack of preparation and a lack of understanding that people do fund access. So, if you're planning an event and you put it in your budget when you go for funding, your access costs can be covered rather than just bolting it on at the end. If you're going to create a piece of art, could it have integrated captions in it? We're here to make it accessible, but it has got to be thought of in advance, and it has got to be in the budget. Make sure your budget reflects your access needs and a conscious decision to be inclusive.
In your opinion, what are the risks of not addressing EDI within the arts and increasing accessibility to creative offerings?
If you exclude deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people, you're excluding 18 million adults in the UK. That's a large part of the community and the world that are being excluded from participation. Do people set out to exclude one in three people? Of course not. There are huge benefits to engaging with deaf audiences, but there is a long way to go.
Find out more about how Stagetext makes culture accessible to all and stay up to date with what’s on in terms of captioned performances at www.stagetext.org.
