FILM fans with hearing and sight difficulties are to benefit from a £500,000 National Lottery grant.
Seventy-eight cinemas across England will benefit from the UK Film Council's Cinema Access Programme, which will provide them with captioning and audio-description equipment. At present, only 22 cinemas in England, including the Odeon, in Newcastle, and the City Screen, in York, have such equipment.
A website -www.yourlocal cinema.com -has been developed to inform people about films at local cinemas.
Peter Buckingham, head of the UK Film Council's Distribution and Exhibition Fund, said: ''We want to help all sectors of the community to enjoy film, which is such an important part of our culture.
"In the past, too many people with impaired sight and hearing have been cut off from the world of cinema.''
Dr John Low, chief executive of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, said: "The installation of this equipment greatly expands access and choice for large numbers of deaf and blind and partially sighted people."
Published: 16/02/2004
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