Ogier helps Jersey Festival of Words extend accessibility features

Ogier's continued funding of the Jersey Festival of Words supports the festival's ongoing commitment to providing increased accessibility and inclusivity across the week's events. 

A key accessibility feature at this year's festival will be a speech-to-text facility. The use of this technology heralds the first time in more than 10 years that any theatre event in Jersey has been subtitled for those who are hard of hearing. 

Ogier's support facilitates a range of provisions to enable accessibility and inclusion at this year's festival which runs 20 – 29 September: 

•    speech-to-text events for people who are hard of hearing or deaf
•    a lipreading and deaf awareness workshop
•    an open access event with EYECAN to promote reading aids to those who are visually impaired
•    training sessions for Jersey Festival Of Words volunteers to become sighted guides
•    a wellbeing journaling workshop at HMP La Moye
•    a poetry workshop for Jersey Youth Service
•    two multi-lingual storytelling sessions in Millennium Park for nursery age children

Sophie Halsey, senior Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor at Ogier said: "We hope these provisions will help ensure more people feel included and can enjoy the festival's varied sessions. 

"Last year I personally enjoyed taking part in the BSL workshop as it enabled me to meet with others and hear a bit about their experiences and why sign language is important to them. Sessions like these are so important to help us to connect more as a local community and understand challenges others may be facing."

Find out more about accessibility and inclusion at the Jersey Festival of Words 2024.