- Mohua Das
- TNNUpdated: Jul 22, 2019, 16:42 IST IST
Accessibility in theatres is largely ignored. But modern cinemas are investing time, tech & training to make radical changes to make people with special needs enjoy movies
Like most teenagers growing up in the ‘70s George Abraham’s favourite film of all times is Sholay. “I’ve seen it at least ten times,” he gushes. But it wasn’t until last year that he laughed hysterically when a voice in his ears narrated Jai and Veeru’s tomfoolery while zigzagging through the countryside on a motorbike singing Yeh dosti. “I had no idea they were up to such antics!” laughs the 60-year-old who suffered meningitis at 10 months that damaged his optic nerves and left him with blurred vision for life.
Abraham, who cannot see beyond the end of his nose, loves the movies but usually either needs to go with someone who is willing to describe the scenes, or picks a film that is heavy on dialogue and easier to follow. “To avoid getting shushed by others in the audience,” he says. That was until last July when he attended a screening of Sanju at the PVR Plaza in Delhi and became one of the first users of an intelligent system that the theatre has partnered with to offer XL Cinema, a free app developed by Mumbai-based MIT graduate Kunaal Prasad that narrates non-verbal parts of a movie including the expressions and special effects through audio descriptions of everything going on between dialogues. Making strides in assistive technology and inclusive entertainment, the XL Cinema app originally created to enable anyone to watch a movie in the theatres in a language of their choice became a game changer for visually-challenged cinephiles with audio content scripted by Saksham, a non-profit empowering those with print disability.
Abraham, who cannot see beyond the end of his nose, loves the movies but usually either needs to go with someone who is willing to describe the scenes, or picks a film that is heavy on dialogue and easier to follow. “To avoid getting shushed by others in the audience,” he says. That was until last July when he attended a screening of Sanju at the PVR Plaza in Delhi and became one of the first users of an intelligent system that the theatre has partnered with to offer XL Cinema, a free app developed by Mumbai-based MIT graduate Kunaal Prasad that narrates non-verbal parts of a movie including the expressions and special effects through audio descriptions of everything going on between dialogues. Making strides in assistive technology and inclusive entertainment, the XL Cinema app originally created to enable anyone to watch a movie in the theatres in a language of their choice became a game changer for visually-challenged cinephiles with audio content scripted by Saksham, a non-profit empowering those with print disability.
