美国国家公共电台 NPR It's OK To Look At Your Phone At A Broadway Show, If Your Hearing Is Impaired

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And now to Broadway, where the biggest theater chain is now accessible to deaf and hearing-impaired¹ patrons for free through their smartphones. That's a big deal because an estimated 48 million Americans have some degree of hearing loss. Jeff Lunden reports that, by summer, all of Broadway will follow suit.

JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE²: At a recent matinee of "The Band's Visit" on Broadway, a message tells the audience in English, Hebrew in Arabic to turn their cellphones off. But Jerry Bergman of The New York Chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America was keeping his phone on so he could read closed captions³ while watching the show.

JERRY BERGMAN: You need to put the phone in airplane mode and scroll⁴ down to the show. There you are, "Band's Visit." And you can adjust the size like that. You could also adjust the brightness.

LUNDEN: Bergman's a native New Yorker who wasn't born hearing impaired, but he says as his hearing deteriorated⁵, he found going to the theater frustrating⁶. He and his advocacy group wanted to do something about it.

BERGMAN: We were considering legal action against the Broadway theater community when we received a phone call from someone at the Shubert asking if we'd be interested in collaborating⁷ with them, consulting with them to develop captioning⁸ access. Of course, it was music to our ears, no pun intended.

LUNDEN: Up until 15 years ago, deaf theatergoers in New York only had occasional access to sign-language performances says Robert Wankel, president of the Shubert Organization, which owns 17 Broadway theaters.

ROBERT WANKEL: We did try to make other seats available that may give people a little bit of access, but we really didn't have the technology, so it was really a sign performance or nothing.

LUNDEN: In 2003, one Broadway theater began offering closed-caption devices to patrons who requested them. Within a few years, most others followed. But access was limited to the number of units each theater had. Kyle Wright, who spearheaded the current accessibility initiative for the Schuberts in the Broadway League, which represents producers and theater owners, says now anyone with a smartphone can enjoy a show.

KYLE WRIGHT: We can accommodate one person. We can accommodate groups of people because we're not relying on having enough technology in hand to facilitate this. So we don't just have 10 or 20, we have as many as people want to use in their own devices.

LUNDEN: The free app called GalaPro was developed by an Israeli tech startup company. CEO Yonat Burlin describes how it works.

WRIGHT: The services that we provide are either captions or subtitles⁹ which are written on a black screen. And we've developed the app in a way that that black screen doesn't disturb anyone else around them. There's no backlight. There's no flashing. There's no messages coming in because the phone is on airplane mode.

LUNDEN: It also has voice-recognition software says the Schubert's Kyle Wright.

WRIGHT: We load a script into a computer that then learns to hear those words. So if an actor stops, it stops. If an actress skips 20 pages, God forbid, it escapes with it. If it skips back, it skips with it. And this becomes very important in shows like with John Leguizamo who, by virtue¹⁰ of being a one-man show, jumps around based on the audience.

LUNDEN: By July, every theater on Broadway will offer the app. And before too long, its developers say it will be able to provide audio description for blind and low-vision patrons in addition to closed captioning. In the end, Jerry Bergman is happy he didn't have to file a lawsuit¹¹.

BERGMAN: We have a saying - please don't do for us, do with us. And the reason is that the hearing loss was spectrum¹² ranges from the casual person who can put on a headset who doesn't even wear hearing aids to people like myself who are severe to profoundly hearing impaired and almost deaf without our hearing aides. So, you know, this is a solution that we helped bring about in a way that works for everybody, including the deaf community. That's wonderful.

LUNDEN: Audience members can check out the Theater Access NYC website to find out which shows currently offer the app. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.

1 impaired   

adj.受损的；出毛病的；有（身体或智力）缺陷的v.损害，削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Much reading has impaired his vision. 大量读书损害了他的视力。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His hearing is somewhat impaired. 他的听觉已受到一定程度的损害。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 captions   

n.标题，说明文字，字幕( caption的名词复数 )v.给（图片、照片等）加说明文字( caption的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• I stared, trying to grasp the point of the picture and the captions. 我目不转睛地看着漫画，想弄清楚漫画和解说词的意思。 来自辞典例句
• Indicates whether the user or the system paints the captions. 指示是由用户还是由系统来绘制标题。 来自互联网

4 scroll   

n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡

参考例句：

• As I opened the scroll,a panorama of the Yellow River unfolded.我打开卷轴时，黄河的景象展现在眼前。
• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements.他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。

5 deteriorated   

恶化，变坏( deteriorate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Her health deteriorated rapidly, and she died shortly afterwards. 她的健康状况急剧恶化，不久便去世了。
• His condition steadily deteriorated. 他的病情恶化，日甚一日。

6 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 collaborating   

合作( collaborate的现在分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Joe is collaborating on the work with a friend. 乔正与一位朋友合作做那件工作。
• He was not only learning from but also collaborating with Joseph Thomson. 他不仅是在跟约瑟福？汤姆逊学习，而且也是在和他合作。

8 captioning   

v.给（图片、照片等）加说明文字( caption的现在分词 )

参考例句：

9 subtitles   

n.说明字幕，印在外国影片上的对白翻译字幕，译文对白字幕；小标题，副标题( subtitle的名词复数 )；（电影的）字幕

参考例句：

• subtitles for the deaf and the hard of hearing 为耳聋和听力不佳者打出的字幕
• a Polish film with English subtitles 附有英语字幕的波兰影片

10 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。

11 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

12 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。