I was born deaf but I wouldn’t inflict subtitles on everyone

Iam the daughter of an actress and I was born deaf. So it would be natural to assume that I would be the first cheerleader for the campaign to make arts events more accessible to the hearing-impaired by offering subtitles for theatre performances. After all, I watch television with subtitles so as not to have to elbow my husband every five minutes to ask him what’s going on. There are occasional cinema screenings of new releases with subtitles, which I’d love to benefit from. But they’re always shown at 10.30am on a Tuesday when I’m working (but the deaf OAPS, presumably, are not). Nevertheless, I hesitate. It’s not that I’m not in favour of improved accessibility; it’s that I don’t think the solution – compulsory subtitles for all theatre performances, as well as spoken word events at museums and galleries

– is the right one.

When it comes down to it, subtitles are annoying – a distraction from the action on a screen or stage – and performers or audiences shouldn’t be subjected to that. Particularly when the vast majority of any audience can hear the actors or speakers perfectly well.

Subtitles for occasional performances – yes please. Encouraging theatres to open conversation with their disabled or disadvantaged audience members about how to improve their experience – absolutely. But no to a “one-size-fits-all” solution.

Stagetext, the charity behind the campaign, says there are 11million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK who might benefit from their proposed measure. But while that sounds significant – half as many as the 22 million people who attended a live theatre performance in the last year – it fails to acknowledge the huge variety of deafness that sits within that figure. There are the children and the very old, the absolutely stone deaf and the mildly hard of hearing.

Nor does it acknowledge that there are lots of deaf people, including me, who are already able to enjoy live theatre. Many rely on lip-reading, and for them, there will be performances that are not off-limits, so long as they sit in the front row. In place already in many theatres is the loop system (where the audio is delivered via radio from microphone to hearing aid, blocking off any external noises), which works very well for certain hearing aids.

Since digital audio became sexy technology, hearing aids are light years from the box I wore on a thick cable around my neck when I was young girl. The NHS now provides highly sophisticated digital hearing aids and you can buy a range of accessories to support them.

I have a Bluetooth operated microphone that I use in order to be able to hear in a noisy situation, but it also works like a miniature loop system if I have it in my hand while watching a performance. And new technology is constantly being developed, such as the glasses that show subtitles on the screen only to the wearer.

I applaud Stagetext for its Caption Awareness Week. The conversation they’ve started is a good one. But the creative arts need freedom of expression in order to innovate, stimulate and entertain.

Technology and a grown-up, common sense approach can combine to help the audiences engage. Let’s use it.

‘Bright Young Dead’ by Jessica Fellowes is out now (Sphere, £12.99)