Captioning glasses available at The Straz

This time, experiencing the arts in Tampa just got a little bit more accessible. The Straz Center has new glasses that do some live captioning of the performances as you're watching them. FOX 13's Brianna Ardando joins us live at the Straz Center in Tampa. Brianna, this is cool, and especially big for guests with disabilities, huh? Yeah, absolutely, Mark. I mean, this is a whole new way to really make the arts more accessible and to help them to come alive in a new way. Of course, it is going to definitely help those who are hearing impaired, even vision impaired, and even those who aren't. So here's exactly what those captioning glasses look like. Right now, this is just going to be for Broadway shows here at the Straz, but they upload the show's script to software and then it listens for sound cues. And also to the actors performing live to make sure that the words match up exactly with the script. That way you can follow the words along as they're being spoken. Now the text is projected onto the lenses, which I have to say it is very difficult to capture that on video. But basically, you know, you have a controller that's like a phone where you can change the text color, brightness, text position, size, and more. The arts is... It's point blank for everyone and it gives a way for people of all abilities, of all backgrounds and all diversities to be able to express themselves and also be seen on stage. So if art itself is projected that way on stage and created in that way, then we want to make sure that guests can also come and see that and be a part of that and experience that, and especially in these large performing arts centers. Yeah, this helps people who have hearing loss or hard of hearing or visually impaired and they need that text up close. But also, if you like to watch TV with captions to catch what's being said, you would like these glasses too. The Straz says that Hamilton is a great example where your ear may not catch all of that fast rapping that goes on in the show. And so having the glasses would really help with this. Now, the next show where guests will be able to use these glasses will be Death Becomes Her. I did try them on. It is very cool. It fits right over your glasses if you And during the show, if there's a pause or something happens there on stage, the text actually pauses there for a second and then it picks right back up once the actors resume the script mark. Brianna, I'm curious how they found out about this tech. Yeah, so it actually originated in the UK in movie theaters, and then a company called Watchword Live picked it up. They decided to transfer this to live performances in theater, and then the Straz found out about it because they were at a recent conference and saw this in action and thought it would be a great addition here for the guests to make the whole arts experience that much more accessible, Mark. Do you need to be wearing glasses to be able to use them, or are there any other restrictions? What do people need to know if they're interested in this? No, you don't have to wear glasses in order to wear them. I mean, they actually fit right on top of your glasses. If you happen to naturally wear glasses, if you wear contacts or something, as long as you can visually kind of see, you can change things there in terms of the text and whatnot with size. But the main thing is, is that they do recommend you make a reservation. You can do that online or also by calling. They only have about 30 pairs of these glasses right now, so they could get snatched up quick. But again, they're only going to be used for Broadway shows. Once you have them reserved, then you can pick them up here at the reservation desk. Very cool. All right. Brianna Ardando, live for us at the Straz. Thanks.