Arts charity Stagetext has received a £20,000 grant from the National Lottery Community Fund to help raise awareness of deaf access to arts and culture in the South East of England.

The project will support Stagetext’s team of ambassadors to build relationships with deaf groups and deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people across the area to spread the word about accessible events.

There are 18 million adults who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing in the UK, including approximately 4.3 million in the South East – that’s 1 in 3 of the local population. Yet many people who could benefit from captions and subtitles at live events in theatres, museums and other culture venues are unaware that they are available.

By sharing their experience of the difference captions and live subtitles can make, the ambassadors will help promote the benefits of deaf access; and show theatres, museums and event venues that there are keen deaf audiences who would love to attend more events if more options were available.

Melanie Sharpe, CEO of Stagetext said:

We are thrilled to receive the grant from the National Lottery Community Fund. By helping to spread the word about theatre captions and live subtitles for museum talks and tours, we can bring more people to arts and culture. It’s not only transformative for those that are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing, but it makes economic sense for the venues too.

Kathryn, an ambassador for Stagetext said:

Going to the theatre and seeing captions for the first time was life-changing for me, and for my family and friends, but currently many others are unaware that captions exist and are widely available. The Stagetext outreach project will show how they can still fully appreciate theatre performances.

For more information, visit www.stagetext.org.