Art for Everybody

A comprehensive process has begun to make movies shown in theatres more accessible for the impaired

Ana-Maria Cononovici, 28.04.2026, 12:05

Every day, we face the systemic challenges encountered by people with disabilities—from physical barriers and a lack of accessible services to social exclusion. Therefore, as a society, we have a clear mission: to promote accessibility in all areas of life. Going to see a movie at the cinema or a play at the theatre is a joy that, unfortunately, not everyone in our country can experience. Recently, however, a comprehensive process has begun to make movies shown in theatres more accessible. We learn more from Ligia Soare, Cultural Manager at the Animest Association, an audiovisual translator with over 20 years of experience in organising film festivals:

 “Because we want the films and events at our festival to be accessible to as many people as possible, and because we want our invitation to everyone to be a sincere one, we began to think about how exactly we could achieve this and who those people are—or which audience groups we cannot reach or invite to the cinema because of certain barriers. I began training as an audiovisual translator, specialising in translation for the deaf, a few years ago. Then I discovered that methods and research have existed for several decades, and in some countries they are already being applied, though only in a few at this time.”

There is no standard in Europe regarding this matter. Our interviewee told us how an international project involving five countries—the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, and Croatia—was launched, which has also been extended to include visually impaired audience members:

“In parallel with what we started doing at Animest, through our collaboration with the French Institute in Bucharest, a partnership emerged on an international project—a European initiative called Cinema Without Barriers—which has been running since 2024. This involves five European countries, five cinemas in five countries, where accessible film screenings take place monthly, especially for deaf and blind people. And in parallel, we’ve been working on these projects with schools for deaf children and their teachers to see exactly what they need. Specifically, for a film to be accessible to deaf people, it should be provided with special subtitles, known as descriptive subtitles, because they don’t just transcribe the dialogue, but also relevant sounds, noises, or the name of the person speaking—when it’s not obvious from the frame—so that if you couldn’t hear, you wouldn’t know who is participating in the conversation, so that you can watch the film without a hearing barrier. However, because for many deaf people here—and not just here—the spoken language of the country is not their native language, but rather sign language, we have begun to include Romanian sign language interpretation in the films we produce. This means we collaborate with sign language interpreters who, through our projects, have begun to specialise in film interpretation; they record in a studio, the footage is edited, and the interpreter effectively becomes part of the film.”

In a movie theatre, during such screenings, deaf and hearing viewers can watch the film together. Ligia Soare, Cultural Manager at the Animest Association, has more:

 “There are certain methods available for blind viewers: the classic method is called audio description. This means there is a voiceover that narrates what is happening in the film when the characters aren’t speaking or there are no relevant sounds. Specifically, it’s a person who can be an audiovisual translator—who learns to do audio description, writes that text so that, if you can’t see or you have partial vision,  you can follow the film. And after consulting with a blind person who will tell you if you’ve captured all the details correctly—because they’re the best judges of whether the description is done well— it is recorded with an actor’s voice, edited, synchronised with the film, and packaged so that the person in the movie theater can also hear this description.”

The narration can be heard either through wireless headphones—the projectionist simply turns on the audio at the same time as the film—or via a mobile app. The clear intention now, of course, is to expand cultural offerings, because despite all these efforts, the disparities in opportunities remain very significant. Ligia Soare:

 “At the beginning of the year, we held a training session with festivals in Northern Europe that also want this. Why? Because the concept of cultural accessibility is starting to gain traction in legislation, but there are so many other priorities that we’re struggling to make this happen. But people ask, okay, but is that all deaf or blind people need? They need other things, but culture somehow provides a safety net, or a reason to socialize, which can address other issues as well. Because we already have deaf and blind children in Bucharest who come to the cinema, but for them it’s becoming normal to demand a culture and a bilingual approach in social life. Let’s sound the alarm; through culture, let’s show that these needs exist and that these people need all levels of activities tailored to their approach. It’s not enough for it to be just movies; they should also have dance, theater, and opera—and not just this type of culture and museums—so they can choose. I, as a hearing person, have that luxury: I can choose to go wherever I want. They, for now, don’t really have a choice.” (MI)