When the 2022 Oscars are telecast on ABC Sunday night from Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre, Deaf and hard of hearing viewers will have access to a live stream of American Sign Language interpretation, a first in the show’s 94-year history.
Featuring certified deaf interpreters, the stream will be available on the Academy’s YouTube Channel, free to access on viewers’ personal devices including their phone, tablet or computer, where the stream will operate as a second screen. Additionally, the ASL feed will be directly accessible to viewers streaming the full show at Oscars.com.
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The move is part of the Academy’s ongoing efforts to expand accessibility at the annual ceremony, a commitment Jeanell English, VP, Impact and Operations, told The Hollywood Reporter is not new. Instead, it’s part of “a constant space and state of learning and growing” for the group behind the Oscars, which includes a larger commitment year-round at events by an organization that understands it “can’t accomplish inclusion without prioritizing accessibility.”
“We’re not going to get everything right. We know that, but we ask, how can we continue to improve? Let’s keep pushing the boundaries and challenging and trying to create more access where we can,” English said of the Academy’s approach to accessibility and disability inclusion. “We’re proud of what we’ve done, but it’s not nearly enough and we are committed to continuing to do as much as we can in this journey.”
That journey has resulted once again in a frontstage ramp, full integrated into the design of the ceremony’s custom-made stage, for the 2022 show. Additionally, the ceremony plans to continue the use of live captioning and, following last year’s history-making effort, the use of audio description for blind and low vision Oscars viewers, courtesy of the country’s largest captioning provider <VITAC.
Also carrying over from last year are its COVID-19 protocols. The 2021 live and remote show had socially distanced seating with nominees and winners also appearing remotely to address pandemic health and safety concerns. For this year’s ceremony, the Academy’s Office of Representation, Inclusion and Equity worked with the show’s medical COVID advisors to address and accommodate specific requests and questions related to COVID.
THR has reached out to the Academy around accommodating any possible immunocompromised attendees following Friday’s updated protocols.
In a conversation ahead of the March 27 show, THR spoke with English about how the show views accessibility, who it turns to for guidance and what measures it’s taking this year to make the ceremony in-person and at home more accessible than ever.
How do the Oscars think about accessibility and what are some of the questions the Academy raises around it when it’s planning the show’s in-person and telecast elements?
The question is: what is the Oscar’s experience? What is it supposed to feel like and how do we make sure that the experience is the same for all of our guests who are on-site? There’s the nominees and there’s the guests of our nominees. There’s also our colleagues who are working this — the incredible production stuff — really thinking about what that experience is, what that experience should be and how we make it consistent for everyone. It’s really trying to embrace this idea of not having a separate but equal approach, and really wanting everyone to have the same beautiful, special Oscars experience regardless of their role. In terms of the questions we’re asking ourselves, it’s what is the experience of our nominees? What does our press need to make sure that they’re able to receive all of the information and all of the stories that are so important for us to be able to tell? What do our staff also need? How can we provide that? How do we make sure working the Oscars feels like a truly incredible moment and experience — because it really is.
Where is the Academy currently getting its guidance on accessibility? Is it both within and outside the organization?
Absolutely. What’s unique, especially when we’re talking about disability and accessibility, is the stat that in the U.S., one in four individuals are living with a disability in some capacity. So when you create an environment where you encourage people to share their lived experience, to talk about what it is they need and what could improve, you get an incredible wealth of information. One of the great things we’ve done this year is really building out our own accessibility team supporting the show. That’s comprised of staff members who are committed to creating a beautiful experience at the event. Additionally, we have the privilege of having these incredible members like Marlee Matlin and Jim LeBrecht, who worked really closely with us in consultation in 2020 as we prepped for that ceremony. And we’ve just launched our first accessibility affinity group amongst our members at the Academy, so we’re finding and developing a more direct opportunity for conversation, consultation and learning from individuals who are living and working in the industry with disabilities. That’s an incredible, incredible resource.
In terms of consultants, I am so proud because we are working with an incredible organization, LaVant Consulting, led by Andraéa LaVant. Her team, with Rosemary McDonnell-Horita who is a key consultant working with us, has been a partner to me and to my team in thinking through and questioning everything we’re doing. So much so that we even facilitated a training with the Dolby staff who are going to be working as ushers on all things accessibility, all things disability — what language we should be using, how we start to normalize different questions, how we engage with service animals, how do you ask someone if they need support and help. We’ve been working really closely with that team in identifying a number of deaf and hearing interpreters to support the show, but also walking through and working with us on the design of the stage and thinking through everything from the communications and how we’re promoting certain services. I’m so proud to have worked with them this season and so excited with what they’ve contributed.
With a number of Deaf nominees at this year’s ceremony and a potential larger at-home audience tuning in for that, are there plans to expand accessibility for this community or to do anything differently from years past?
Not anything differently. ABC does provide a captioned version of the show for viewers at home and that’s been standard and it’s consistent for anyone accessing online on abc.com. That is something ABC has really done and delivered. One of the things that we also introduced last year was audio description. We got a lot of really great feedback by introducing that as an incredible tool and we’re continuing to offer it for the show this year. Then the other piece — the new piece that we really added for this year that was from direct feedback and conversation we had from the Deaf community — was how can we start to embed ASL interpretation into the broadcast in some capacity. So we are providing a YouTube feed in front of the paywall to support anyone who wants to watch and experience the show with an ASL interpreter. We’re really proud of what we’re doing here. The ASL interpreters are incredible. We’re working with certified deaf interpreters this year who will be delivering that service on YouTube Live with the broadcast. It will be an incredible feature for anyone who wants to tune in and pull up that feed and watch the show with our interpreters.
Did the pandemic, which moved the show into a lot of virtual and remote elements, change the Oscars approach at all to accessibility at home and in the theater?
There’s that theater experience — that event experience — and to be honest, the Academy has always prioritized accessibility and inclusion of anyone at the Dolby or last year at the train station. We’ve always really taken a lot of time to understand what it is our guests need, what it is our nominees might need, how we can accommodate any requests that come through. Without a doubt, that’s how we’ve approached things. But in terms of the broadcast itself, I think we’ve now leaned more into digital and different tools, which in some ways have made us able to play with more accessible ways to engage people in a different way. The one thing about the pandemic, even when we think about how people become more familiar and comfortable with Zoom and other online features, is it just gives you a lot of space to think creatively about how you can engage and connect with different audience members. For the show experience itself, I wouldn’t say there’s a direct kind of change but because of the pandemic, you saw our last show bringing in different remote locations and that was really thinking about the safety of our guests as well.
Accessibility and inclusion are not just technical parts of the show. It also involves creative elements, like presenters. Can you speak to how that was approached inclusion-wise this year with the disability community?
I can’t speak to the whole presenters’ list. That really sits with our incredible producers. What I can say is diversity and representation have been a priority in working with Will [Packer] and Shayla [Cowan] for this year, and I’m really impressed and proud of what they’re doing.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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