Persons with disability (PWDs) have the same needs and interests in arts and cultural activities as anyone else. However, due to the inaccessibility of arts programmes, PWDs are the largest group of overlooked and underdeveloped arts patrons in Hong Kong. This "Arts for Everyone" Audience Development Pilot Project (the Project) aims to develop arts among PWDs as well as the increasing aging population with loss of hearing and/or vision, thus making ARTS really FOR EVERYONE in Hong Kong.

Supported by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, the Project will develop PWDs as active arts patrons and focus on increasing accessibility for persons with visual impairment, hearing impairment and mobility difficulty through:

• (1) Audio Description (AD) - a means of providing access for people who are blind or have impaired vision. The words chosen in AD and the placement of those words within the sequence of the video can have a significant impact on the viewer's experience can give people with visual impairment a more complete picture of what is being shown, enabling them to appreciate and to share in the presentation as fully as a sighted person.
  
  
• (2) Theatrical Interpretation (TI) - is developed to allow another silent "voice" in theatre. Targeted to audiences with hearing impairment, it is not merely translating a script into sign language but strives to retain the flavour of the original work, incorporating the director's vision and the performers' characterisations into an equivalent artistic offering. Interpreters are allowed to stand in specific locations on the stage, or participate in the performance with costumes and make-up. As if acting, interpreting requires immense physical expressions to communicate the story in theatre, and can be regarded as a new art form.
  
  
• (3) Arts Buddies services - aims to solve this programme by training up volunteers who would accompany a PWD to attend an arts event (exhibition and/or performance) as his/her support person. The volunetters should be equipped with basic disability awareness training. It is hoped that, in a long run, the Programme can bridge the communication between persons withor without disabilities as "buddies".
  

Stay tuned for our upcoming trail performances with AD or TI and the "Arts Buddies" service.