chansigne, connected glasses… innovations to make shows accessible

In France, 10 million people have hearing problems and often deprive themselves of going to a concert. Backstage at a Parisian festival, sign language interpreters prepare to translate an entire concert for hearing-impaired spectators. “There is really the whole body, the facial expression which marks the intensity, the body which marks the rhythm, the musicality, all of that must be transmitted”describes Aurélie Nahon, co-founder and songwriter of the collective 10 doigts en cavale. It takes 300 hours of work to songwriter a show.

More and more artists are using interpreters. Some, like the group Coldplay, offer vibrating vests that allow you to feel sound frequencies. In Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), two friends who have been deaf since childhood tested the device and danced in the middle of the crowd. In Paris, a group of hearing-impaired spectators tried out connected glasses where subtitles appear in front of the lenses. The Comédie-Française is the first theater to equip itself with them permanently.