DEAF and hard of hearing audiences will have greater access to theatre now Colchester’s most renowned venue has its own captioning unit.

The Mercury Theatre no longer has to share the equipment - which provides a written description of what is happening on stage - after receiving a £6,000 grant from Essex County Council’s Community Initiatives Fund.

It means the Mercury can improve upon the 18 accessible performances staged over the past year while making the unit available to visiting companies, and continuing to provide audio-described and captioned performances.

This year also marks the introduction of dementia-friendly shows for the first time.

Steve Mannix, executive director of the Mercury Theatre, said: “We’re now in the fantastic position of being more flexible with our access provision.

“The theatre can bring the unit into action at short notice, for visiting companies or community use, for our creative learning and talent projects, and more.

“The Mercury is committed to ensuring audiences from Essex and beyond can access great theatre, and this is just one step in our plans to improve our facilities to guarantee access for all.”

Until now the theatre had shared equipment provided by the See a Voice campaign and later, through the purchase of a unit for the Mercury Theatre, Ipswich’s New Wolsey Theatre and the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds.

The Mercury has also safeguarded the captioning unit for the future by investing extra funds to upgrade its hardware and software.

Dr Jan Sheldon, chief executive officer at the Royal Association for Deaf people, based in Colchester, welcomes the additional accessibility captioning will provide to the deaf community here.

She said: "There is no one size fits all solution to improving accessibility for Deaf people, but if used alongside British Sign Language interpreters, captioning can make an enormous difference."

To apply for the Community Initiatives Fund click here.

Visit mercurytheatre.co.uk/accessible-theatre for more information on accessibility.