Forwards Festival trials headset to aid visually impaired

A world-first trial is helping visually impaired people experience the sights, as well as the sounds, of a festival.

Forwards Festival in Bristol has trialled a headset which beams the footage from the cameras around the stage directly into the user's vision.

The headset stimulates the photoreceptor cells in people's eyes to help them regain some vision.

Harry Jones, accessibility manager at the festival, said: "We are opening up a whole new door for people."

Joanna Liddington at GiveVision, the company behind the headset, said: "Some people with severe sight loss might be able to make out blurs or a bit of colour, with the headset it makes all of this a lot clearer and crisper.

"We often have people say: 'Oh, I can see their faces, I can actually see them smile and what they're doing'."

One in 33 people across the country have sight loss. With 20,000 people attending Forwards festival, that should equate to about 600 visually people on site.

In reality however, only 10 visually impaired people attended the event and GiveVision hope to break down those barriers.

They believe the user should not have to pay anything towards the headset, instead it believes it should be up to festivals or other events to make accessibility a priority.

"It's not necessarily going to be successful for every single person here, but the results we've had have been astounding so far," Ms Jones said.

"The viewing platform was nearly at capacity last night."

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