New York City's Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) will present GalaPro with a 2018 Sapolin Accessibility Award for Communication and Technology in celebration of the upcoming anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 26. Beginning June 1, GalaPro has offered every Broadway ticketholder access to on-demand closed captioning and audio description.
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An initiative from the Broadway League, GalaPro has been developed over the past 18 months with the Shubert Organization, TDF, the Hearing Loss Foundation of America, The Association for Late Deafened Adults, and Hands On.
The new technology, which has been gradually implemented in Broadway houses since January, uses vocal recognition software to generate captioning for Deaf and hard-of-hearing audience members, and audio description for those who are blind or have low vision. In addition, the GalaPro app offers the same technology to anyone with a smartphone.
The Awards will be presented July 26 at Gracie Mansion in a ceremony hosted by the Mayor of the City of New York, Bill de Blasio. The award is named after Matthew Sapolin, a former commissioner of MOPD.
