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Theater lovers with severe hearing loss often have to wait for special performances with big caption boards or humans who sign the dialogue. Now that is changing thanks to some new technology so deaf people can enjoy opening night as well as those who can hear.
Nothing is like the excitement of live theater, but for those with severe hearing loss, the words and music are the sounds of silence.
Joseph Gordon is one of those affected by hearing loss, "Just miss enjoying it."
Many theaters offer patrons free head phones that amplify the sound, but they don't work for everyone. Now there's another option called eye caption.
It made its debut in the Broadway musical "Wicked." The hand held pda-like device follows deaf patrons to follow the show word-for-word.
Richard Fitzgerald developed the system, "When the orchestra starts the overture, the words come up and the screen says "overture." From there on any of the spoken words, the song, all of the lyrics of the song appear on the screen in paragraph form as if it were a slide presentation."
So far eye captioning is getting good reviews from hearing impaired patrons like Mr. Gordon, "It was better because I no longer have to go to theaters where there are no captions of any sort."
Now hearing impaired patrons can pick up an eye caption for free at a special services booth in the theatre lobby. Besides "Wicked," it will be at performances of "Mama Mia" and touring shows of "Big River."
By Dawndy Mercer
Nothing is like the excitement of live theater, but for those with severe hearing loss, the words and music are the sounds of silence.
Joseph Gordon is one of those affected by hearing loss, "Just miss enjoying it."
Many theaters offer patrons free head phones that amplify the sound, but they don't work for everyone. Now there's another option called eye caption.
It made its debut in the Broadway musical "Wicked." The hand held pda-like device follows deaf patrons to follow the show word-for-word.
Richard Fitzgerald developed the system, "When the orchestra starts the overture, the words come up and the screen says "overture." From there on any of the spoken words, the song, all of the lyrics of the song appear on the screen in paragraph form as if it were a slide presentation."
So far eye captioning is getting good reviews from hearing impaired patrons like Mr. Gordon, "It was better because I no longer have to go to theaters where there are no captions of any sort."
Now hearing impaired patrons can pick up an eye caption for free at a special services booth in the theatre lobby. Besides "Wicked," it will be at performances of "Mama Mia" and touring shows of "Big River."
By Dawndy Mercer