This part of the unit covers surtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing, also called SDH, an access service aimed at making the auditory channel more accessible. As explained earlier, performances can have surtitles, which are mostly used to make foreign language performances and events accessible in the language of the audience. Obviously, the hearing impaired can access these interlingual surtitles as well, but they only render the dialogue and don’t offer full access to the auditory channel. Imagine a scene, where a young woman is sitting at a desk, reading a book. Suddenly, we hear a loud bang. The woman jumps up, walks to the door and goes off-stage. Next, we hear muffled voices, the shrieking of car tires followed by a loud, high-pitched scream, a thud and then… silence. To make this scene accessible to the hearing impaired, the narratively important sound effects need to be described, namely the bang, the muffled voices, the car, the screaming, and in some cases even the silence. Without it, the scene doesn’t make much sense. This is exactly what SDH does. Beside the translation or transcription of the dialogue, it includes descriptions of important sound effects, a description of the type of music and it indicates who is speaking, when several speakers are on stage simultaneously. There are different conventions for rendering this aural information, varying from one country to the next, but it also depends on the projection technique that you use. For instance, when titles are projected on individual devices in the back seats of the venue, it is easier to use colors for indicating speaker changes. When surtitles are projected above the stage, the color scheme of the titles needs to be coordinated with the lighting of the performance for them to remain legible. This makes the use of colors more difficult. Depending on the performance, creative solutions can also be sought, such as integrating the titles in the setting and projecting them on the back wall of the stage, close to the actors speaking or you can use several surtitling monitors right, left and centre and project on the one closest to the person speaking at a given moment. Surtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing are prepared and projected by experts, usually surtitlers who have had additional training in accessibility. They are also the person to contact regarding what surtitling technique to apply for a given performance, because there is seldom a one-fits-all solution, and the way in which the surtitles will be integrated needs to be reevaluated for each new play or event. Today, SDH is not common in live performances yet, except in countries like the UK. For a good example of SDH in live settings, we would like you to visit the website of Stagetext, a UK-based provider of live surtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, and watch their introductory video.