Audio helps to put play in focus

A NUMBER of local blind and partially sighted people were able to fully enjoy Romeo and Juliet at the Island arts Centre thanks to Lisburn in Focus.

Audio description tells you what is happening visually on the stage - via a personal headset - when there is no dialogue or when it is crucial to the plot that you know what the characters are doing non verbally.

Few venues outside of Belfast provide any opportunities for blind and partially sighted people to enjoy Audio description at live theatre performances. Lisburn in Focus, A BIG Lottery Funded project lead by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB NI) is working with Lisburn Arts Centre to try to ensure audio description takes place at least once a year.

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Most of the people who attended the performance on Saturday night had not experienced audio description before. Local man, Jim Moore commented; “I haven’t been to the theatre in years as I can no longer see all that is happening on stage and got tired of having to be filled in on what was happening by the person next to me.

“The headsets mean that I can have one ear free for the dialogue, and then when the audio description is happening I get the added bonus of being told who is doing what to whom.”

Lisburn in Focus is working with the Arts Centre not only on audio description but also other access ideas such as touch tours and accessible information.

For more information about Lisburn in Focus contact the project staff on 028 9260 0388 or email [email protected]

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