For those with hearing loss, there’s something exciting happening in the theater world, and all you need is your phone. For years, going to a play while hard of hearing could be a difficult experience. However, things could be changing for the better.
What Galapro does is simple. It lets you stream real-time closed captions right to your phone. Their webpage explains it best:
“How does it work? Simply download the app and choose from our participating theaters. You can search by city or current location. Once you choose your preferred theater you will be able to see the show offered with the available languages and services.”
NPR recently profiled the app, following a user who was often frustrated by the lack of theater options for those with different degrees of hearing loss. Standard venue offerings, such as sign language shows and closed captioned devices, never seemed to be enough. Being able to understand or enjoy a performance was usually more trouble than it was worth. Using the Galapro app, however, now being able to follow along the show on his phone, the theater-goer finally found a reason to stick around.
Galapro also has voice recognition software and displays text on a black screen so as not disturb other theater guests. It could also potentially work extremely well with a T-coil connection. Using both Galapro and a T-coil connection you’d be able to listen to audio streamed directly to your aid while reading the performance’s text right in your lap.
You can see what shows currently work with Galapro by visiting Theater Access NYC. For now, Galapro is New York City based, but that could always change. You can also use Galapro for Live Captioning elsewhere if CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) is offered at your event, lecture, or conference. See the Galapro website for more information.
It’s still early days, but Galapro is definitely an app worth watching
.