This was a first, the first time The Box on Screen has been shown on “The Big Screen” in the Media lab at Plymouth’s Museum and Art Gallery. This is the first time the episodes were made accessible with audio descriptions, captions and British Sign Language. The Box on Screen is an online series produced by Soundview for The Box, which delves into the vast film and television archive held at the museum. Each episode features excerpts from the tens of thousands of hours of film and video footage and tells stories from yesteryear, bringing them to life for digital audiences today.

Like us, the team at The Box are committed to access and inclusion, so we commissioned Living Options Devon ( who offer a range of help and support services for people with a long term health condition, disability and / or who are Deaf ) to advise us on how we could make our video content more accessible to more diverse audiences. We shared some existing content with a focus group comprised of people with lived experience of a range of disabilities.  That feedback was recorded and contributed to the research undertaken and existing knowledge Living Options Devon has on best practices for accessible content.

In the final report, there were some key and easy-to-adopt recommendations. The first is the most simple, and most easily overlooked. Use plain English, and use language to describe what is appearing on screen where possible. The second is to caption content. Captions are subtitles with added information to include the sounds in the scene, and not just the words being spoken. There is growing evidence to show that captions help increase understanding for some neuro-diverse people as well as Deaf and hearing-impaired individuals. Another key recommendation was to create audio-described versions of the episodes. Audio Description is what is said on the tin, a narrative to explain the visual content for blind and visually impaired audiences.

So for the event itself The Box invited an audience to the premier of the accessible screenings to officially launch the content. It took place in the brilliant Media Lab on the Big Screen. We had a wonderful diverse group of people, one of which was delighted when the Plymouth Argyle Film was screened because he was actually at the Brazil vs Argyle match with Pele playing. What an amazing coincidence!

The Box’s CEO Victoria Pomery was delighted to be able to share the new content at the launch. A short quote from her speech perfectly sums up what these films can do, connect new people to the past and to The Box.

” We wanted to feel connected, connected to the past, to audiences, communities, nationally and internationally too. The work done by SoundView Media and The Box on these films has helped us achieve that. “

SoundView’s Managing Director, Gareth Allen was also at the celebration:

“As a Disability Confident Leader organisation, we know that including everyone’s talents enriches all our lives and makes what we do better. We’re delighted that The Box has invested in this important research and is committed to creating accessible content for diverse audiences. It is our mission to work with as many organisations as possible to ensure their content is more inclusive.”

You can see the Box On Screen accessible episodes which include audio descriptions, BSL and captions on The Box’s YouTube channel.