Fast-forward to 2009, when Clay & Paper Theatre was fortunate enough to receive a grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage to continue their accessibility initiative, a project now entitled Puppets Without Barriers. This project had the same goals as the initial pilot project; that is to provide theatre with American Sign Language interpretation, touch tours and integrated descriptive dialogue, this time for the summer production entitled Between Sea & Sky. The company engaged the services of consultant Rose Jacobson, who not only contributed her expertise but brought in other consultants from the blind, deaf and interpreting communities. In partnership with Ryerson University’s CLIME program, Clay & Paper hired two student interns to help coordinate the project.

Puppets Without Barriers succeeded in contracting two American Sign Language interpreters whose shadowing style of interpretation meshed well with the show as a whole. An ASL video trailer with voice-over was created and circulated on the internet, and a number of people from the deaf community came out to enjoy the show. Both Braille and large print flyers and programs were created, and the cast created a touch tour and integrated audio description, engaging both members from the blind community as well as the public at large.

We developed a Tool Kit documenting our Puppets Without Barriers project, which we hope will be of use to other companies wishing to create theatre accessible to blind and deaf audiences.  Just click on the link below to download the .pdf document.