Inclusion and Audience Development

Inclusion is at the heart of Birds of Paradise and it continually strives to improve its practice by making the work accessible to its hearing or visually impaired audience members. The company is pioneering inclusion on the stage by captioning the performance and using British sign language.

'The play soars in its seamless use of sign language' The Herald

Captioning
In 2007 Birds of Paradise became the first Scottish company to caption every performance of Beneath You. Captioning is a mechanism that converts the spoken word into text, providing people with hearing loss improved access to live performance. In a captioned performance, the words appear on a screen at the same time as they are spoken or sung. Captions also include sound effects and offstage noises.

The company was able to reach a wider audience as not all deaf or hearing-impaired people sign, older people found it useful as did audience members where English is not their first language.

Sign Language
Building on the success of The Irish Giant (2003), its production of Mouth of Silence (2006) was inclusively signed by all members of the cast. The Herald described the signing as ‘a device that translates beautifully where mere words are left wanting’.

Audio Description Support
The company is continually developing its services for Visually Impaired audiences and produces an audio programme. Since 2005, it has been working in conjunction with staff from the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB).