Eyes and Ears

Accessibility is freedom, and full access to culture and education are key to a healthy society and an inclusive future. Through this project, we aim at bringing film into the lives of hearing-impaired school children as an essential tool for learning, and raising awareness about accessibilised cinema in public environments.

During 14 months, we shall use our vast experience in organising educational events of cinema for empowering hearing-impaired children, their teachers and families with a modern, highly enjoyable instrument, namely animated film. The aim is to lay the foundation of accessible cinema in Romania respecting European norms and latest research in this field, everything adapted to the needs of our local communities, with permanent feedback and direct participation of hearing-impaired people of various ages. The activities are meant to boost children’s skills of using technology, boost their self-confidence and give them a tool to improve their academic achievements by using alternative educational resources adapted to their age and special needs.

Two vocational schools in Bucharest will be both creators and direct beneficiaries of 10 accessibilised educational films dealing with topics that are relevant for today’s children (emotions, friendship, courage, tolerance, ecology, family, ambition, health etc), which will then become accessible for free to 18 vocational schools in Romania and any school looking for accessibilised films. 

We shall work with professionals in disability studies, inclusive audiovisual translation, film curators, psychopedagogues, sign language interpreters, in creating a barrier-free cinema experience for potentially over 23,000 hearing-impaired people in Romania, some being direct beneficiaries now, others indirect or future beneficiaries of a country in which accessible cinema will hopefully be not an exception, but normality.

As soon as the films are accessibilised in the safe environment of schools, we launch the challenge of taking professionally accesibilised content to the cinema, bringing social innovation, offering a safe and barrier-free public space for hearing-impaired audiences.

A project supported by the Orange Foundation.