One of the highlights of the past year was going with a group of deaf people to see Cats performed live at the Opera House in Belfast with Stagetext in bright red letters on each side of the stage. We were given seats not too near the front so that both the action and words of the songs were in comfortable vision. We all agreed it was spot on and the small contingent from Dublin told me Stagetext suited them much better than a signed performance as their signs are slightly different from ours.

And a few years ago Evelyn and I really enjoyed seeing Pride and Prejudice with subtitles when Queen's Film Theatre put on a special one-night showing in Belfast for visually and hearing impaired people. On this occasion subtitles were simply added to the bottom of the screen and for the one performance only. It seems cinemas and theatres are afraid of doing this too often in case it drives away patrons.

Houston Marshall has sent me an e-mail outlining some of the changes that have been happening at the Opera House with regard to deaf and hard of hearing people.

Until recently Houston has felt he was a lone voice championing the cause of the deaf and hard of hearing, but others have now joined him and he tells me the Access and Disability Panel at The Opera House has been operating since the start of the year, and application has been made for the Arts and Disability Chartermark.

Other changes are in the pipeline, but this is what they have accomplished so far:

The theatre has totally overhauled the induction loop and infrared listening systems. It was only after testing they were found to be in poor working order and this problem has been sorted.

Physically handicapped patrons receive discounts not available to other disabled people and the theatre has now agreed that if a deaf person needs the use of a companion then that person will receive the same free ticket as that issued to a physically disabled carer.

Concerning seating positions, the panel decided that the optimum position to see either signers or caption screens was in the centre stalls. If you let the box office know of your need for these services then you will receive the centre stalls ticket for the same price as upper circle tickets. But you must advise box office at the time of booking.

The bar and restaurant have now got written tariff notices helping deaf and hard of hearing people understand prices etc, and a couple of staff with basic sign language skills who will be on duty during a signed or captioned performance to help with any concerns a deaf person may have.

There will be one signed performance for every show that lasts more than six nights and the number of captioned shows will be increased accordingly.

The panel are in agreement that the best way to increase the number of captioned shows is to ensure more captioners are recruited and house staff have deaf awareness training

Houston hopes to meet me soon to discuss the changes. They are all very good and very positive, but it will take a big effort to break deaf people away from the attraction of the excellent subtitled service from both BBC and ITV.

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