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Deaf and hearing families are becoming "frustrated at the lack of content amidst what is seemingly a hive of creative activity." Handprint Theatre offers advice on making online theatre accessible to all.

Congratulations for making it this far through Lockdown, and for adapting an industry of work based on people, human contact and presenting storytelling into high quality online content. Sharing creativity right now is so important for everyone, and especially families, but there are many families who are being excluded from the online performing arts world.

By not considering access when putting work online, we are limiting our audiences, and doing a massive disservice to Deaf and hearing families who are becoming frustrated from the lack of content amidst what is seemingly a hive of creative activity.

It takes time and can be frustrating for the non-technically minded (we are storytellers, right?) but by putting that time into access there are so many people that will benefit, including yourselves.

By making your work accessible, you are immediately increasing your audience to include thousands of families (with Deaf children or parents.) If you add captions you are also providing access to those young people who have English as an additional language and may struggle to understand fast dialogue.  This will also include audiences watching internationally. There have even been studies that suggest that children develop English language skills by reading and watching captioned videos... Keep reading on Family Arts Campaign