The audio description approach provides a richer listening experience and stimulates the imagination of people with a visual impairment. They naturally perceive the text and the actors’ performance. This involves conveying information on the staging, sets, attitude of the actors, their costumes, and their movements when the actors or opera singers are silent. An audio translation of the libretto is broadcast.

These descriptions are recorded beforehand and broadcast live by an audio description stage manager, into headphones that each visually impaired spectator receives.

Programmes in Braille and in large print are given to visually impaired individuals at the beginning of each performance. The programmes provide essential information on the distribution, staging, sets, and costumes.  The audio version of this text is broadcast to the headphones prior to the start of the performance.

Some performances do not require an audio description. In this case, audio versions of detailed programmes in Braille or in large print are offered to visually impaired members of the audience.

Joint seasonal presentations of theatres, operas, and other cultural institutions for visually impaired users and hearing impaired users, in Paris, Bordeaux, Reims, Angers, Nantes, Brittany, and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regions.

On Monday, 20 June 2016 at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, 100 visually impaired users spectators and their carers attended the presentation of performances with audio description in theatres and operas in the Île-de-France region for the 2016-2017 season.