Audio description and Portuguese Sign Language. These are two services already introduced by Cineteatro Louletano and that are already starting to give positive results, with more people having access to cultural shows.
Last weekend, there were about 20 people with various needs - mostly blind or visually impaired people, but also several Deaf people (with a capital "S" are readers/speakers of Portuguese Sign Language) - who went to Loulé to watch the play “Aquário”, by Marlene Barreto.
“In the past, for a blind person to attend a show, it meant that someone accompanying them took their time to explain, and now they don't. Today, they may be hearing what they don't see», explains Anaísa Raquel, audio describer and pioneer in the implementation of this type of service in museums and concert halls.
The system works on the basis of a booth similar to those for simultaneous translation, where the audio describer reports everything that takes place on stage, using a play script created specifically for that purpose. The blind have access to a headset, leaving one ear free to follow the sounds of the room.
Ricardo Martins, president of ACAPO-Algarve, adds that “Aquário” was not his first experience, not least because he had already tried audio description in Loulé.
For him, who is a musician and author of a radio program in the Algarve, audio description is a world that brings a new reality to shows.
«In shows like Hamster Clown (a performance without text, by Teatro do Eléctrico), for example, it would not even be possible for us to attend. In others, where there is verbal language, the entire non-verbal part would end up being imagined by us, running the risk of distorting the intention of the car», explains Ricardo Martins, who on one occasion brought the guide dog.
«I think the goal is that this can become the rule and not the exception! Loulé was the first in the Algarve, perhaps the third or fourth nationally, which is great, but now it is necessary to distribute, because in the Algarve public transport works poorly. In Lisbon anyone goes anywhere, not here».
The Loulé Chamber, moreover, provided transport.
«Accessibility is not just cultural equipment, it is the location, the people, their autonomy», adds Anaísa Raquel. But I see that there is a certain positive contamination… the more equipment invests in accessibility (such as Loulé), the more the nearby localities also invest. It takes some regularity for people to get used to it”, she says.
For Vítor Aleixo, mayor of Loulé, the integration of the Accessible Programming Network and the holding of shows with audio description and Portuguese Sign Language «is part of the municipal strategy of democratization and access to culture for all and is, alongside the cultural mediation work, an essential tool to guarantee a constitutional right and, at the same time, contribute to increase the happiness of people with specific needs, ensuring that they are full citizens».
At the same time, some of the shows that come to Cineteatro started to have Portuguese Sign Language aimed at the Deaf community. An experience that, guarantees Vera Correia, LGP interpreter, has been increasingly popular.
«Without a doubt, the Deaf Community receives this cultural offer with great satisfaction and joy, it is so important that they have full access to the entire show. Unfortunately, this is not the case in most situations. Another very positive point that the Deaf community highlights in Loulé is the possibility of having access to what is happening in the municipality through the Municipal Assemblies that are transmitted online», he adds.
Recently, rapper Capicua's concert featured LGP, which prompted the singer to "dance" while translating fast-paced hip hop lyrics. The play “Aquário” had the presence of two interpreters, Vera Correia and Inês Teixeira, to assume the various voices.
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