Plays and performances – accessible to blind and visually impaired people

Until 2014, plays and cultural events in Israel were not made accessible to the blind or visually impaired audience, unlike in other advanced Western countries such as Britain, USA, Germany and Australia. The Library is working to advance the field in Israel by collaborating with leading theaters, training professional narrators and raising public awareness.

In accessible performances a narrator describes what is happening on stage in real time, while the blind members of the audience listen to the description ‘live’ by means of headphones. The narration is a prepared script that the narrator inserts between the actors’ speech without disturbing the flow of the play. Each play has a recorded trailer of about five minutes that describes the setting, characters and stage. Accessible plays also include a touch-tour of the stage in order to get to know the scene and the actors’ voices.

For an update on accessible plays throughout the country, click here.

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