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Knight award goes to People’s Light, Temple U. Institute on Disabilities for tech that connects

People's Light in Malvern and a Temple University program have won a $50,000 Knight award to develop "smart"-glasses augmented reality tech that helps people with disabilities enjoy the performance arts.

Helping people connect. Congratulations to People's Light in Malvern. Along with the Institute on Disabilities, Temple University, it has pulled down a $50,000 Knight Foundation Prototype Fund award to develop technologies that connect people with the arts.

Lisa Sonneborn, director of media and arts and culture at the Institute, says that "the impulse of this project was to make all performances as accessible to as many audiences as possible. We see access to theater and the arts as an issue of social equity."

It's very cool: augmented-reality "smart" glasses and an open-access smart captioning system that can follow what's being done and said in real time. The user can select standard captions, audio description, American Sign Language, or foreign-language subtitles.