Deaf Access Theatre
2 min read
UX research — making accessible theatre performances easier to find
Overview
Deaf and hard-of-hearing people often struggle to find theatre performances that offer captions or British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation. The usual process means checking multiple websites and scanning long lists of shows — slow, fragmented and frequently frustrating.
This project explored whether a dedicated mobile solution could make discovery simpler and faster. Primary users were regular theatre-goers; secondary users included parents and teachers of deaf children.
Research confirmed a clear need for a low-friction way to find accessible shows.
The challenge
Existing theatre websites rarely make accessibility information easy to find or filter.
Key problems included:
Accessibility details that were missing, outdated or hard to spot
No way to filter specifically by BSL or captions
Searches that could take hours and still end in giving up
Extra barriers for parents and teachers trying to include deaf children in school or group trips
The goal was to understand what people actually needed, where the current process failed, and whether a simpler digital tool could meaningfully improve the experience.
What I did
I led the full research process end-to-end:
Project scoping, research planning and secondary research
Assumption mapping and a 5 Whys workshop
User story definition for the main audiences
Contextual inquiry with 30 participants across two local deaf clubs
Observation of real search behaviour on participants’ own devices
Concept testing with 10 participants using low-fidelity paper wireframes
Affinity mapping, synthesis and prioritised insights
Participants included regular theatre-goers, parents of deaf children, and people with limited digital confidence.
Outcome
Participants valued having everything in one place and could locate a specific accessible show significantly faster with the concept.
What I learned
A major practical challenge was communication during sessions with participants who had varying levels of hearing. I adapted by using speech-to-text and began learning basic BSL, which improved the quality of the conversations.
The project reinforced two lasting lessons: accessibility needs to be anticipated in the research process itself, not only in the product; and direct contact with people in context is one of the fastest ways to separate real need from assumption.
It also confirmed a genuine gap in the market for a simpler way to discover accessible theatre — and strengthened the foundation for later work focused on research-led product decisions.
