Making Theaters Accessible | A11y Tokyo Meetup (July 2024)

Jul 25 @ 19:30 - 21:00 JST

**Venue**: Although this meetup page says it is an in-person event, this is a hybrid event in Tokyo that is also streamed on Zoom.

**Language**: This session will be conducted in Japanese.

**English Captions**: {URL will be available later}

**Considering the Significance of "Making Theaters Accessible" with Diverse Members**

The Imperial Theatre, Japan's first western-style theater, is scheduled to be rebuilt in 2025.

The rebuilding is a great opportunity to make the facilities easier for stage fans with disabilities to visit and use, in other words, to enhance the accessibility of the theater.

Therefore, stage fans including the visually impaired, hearing impaired, wheelchair users, sign language interpreters, text support personnel, audio guide producers, and stage-related people have gathered to launch "We Need Accessible Theatre! We collected signatures and delivered 21,000 strokes to Toho Co.

We will report on these developments and consider the significance of "making theaters accessible" with our diverse members.

**Accessible, Hybrid, Multilingual Meetup**

A11yTokyo Meetup is a unique meetup that features various genres of 'accessibility', conducted in a hybrid format of on-site and online broadcasting, primarily in Japanese and English.

Many foreigners participate in the on-site venue in Tokyo, building networks through socialization sessions. We use the voice recognition technology app 'UD Talk' to provide real-time captions, and its automatic translation feature allows for multi-language subtitle translation.

**Speakers**

**Asako Hirokawa** is congenitally deaf and was born in Tokyo. Since 2018, she has been researching social implementation of information access in arts and culture as a user researcher/appointed researcher at the University of Tokyo's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology.

**Eri Matsumoto** lost her hearing while in college due to progressive hearing loss. Currently, she is involved in activities such as lectures, training, and raising awareness of understanding disabilities through the use of assistance dogs. Director of the Japan Assistance Dog Information Center, vice president of the Japan Hearing Dog Partners Association, and social worker.

**Karin Matsumori** It has been over 30 years since I lost my hearing in both ears. As a universal design advisor, she has been involved in a wide range of projects from public facilities to entertainment, taking advantage of her knowledge of both the hearing and non-hearing worlds. In 2017, she planned and supervised "Dialogue in Silence," a dialogue in a world of silence that originated in Germany and was held for the first time in Japan.

**Megumi Mizuki**, as vice president of "City Lights," an organization that promotes barrier-free movie viewing, and as president of "Blueberry Voice," an audio guide circle, she has been researching better ways of providing audio guidance for more than 20 years, and is also putting efforts into training future generations of audio guides.

**Access to Venue**

**Location**: Open Collaboration Hub LODGE (LINE Yahoo Co., Ltd., Kioicho Office) 17th Floor, The Garden Terrace Kioicho

- An entry pass is required. It will be given to you at the 2nd-floor reception.

Unlike previous times, no google form submittion needed to attend in-person.