Puppet Theater Brings Joy to Visually Impaired Children

The State Puppet Theater of Almaty recently held its first inclusive performance featuring audio descriptions—a way to verbally convey the visual aspects of the production through headphones. 

The first guests for this special performance, "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats," were students from Almaty’s specialized boarding school No. 4, the oldest institution in Kazakhstan that teaches blind and visually impaired children. As part of the experience, the children also enjoyed a guided theater tour, where they explored the puppets, props, and stage decorations.

Maral Sheshembekova, Projects & Programs Director at the Dara Charity Foundation, which collaborated on this project, stated:

The tour and tactile experiences provide blind children with a better understanding of what’s happening on stage, enabling them to discuss the performance alongside other audience members. We hope that this successful initiative will inspire other theaters to adopt inclusive practices and promote accessible art.

Employees of several Kazakhstani theaters have completed audio description training organized by the Dara Foundation as part of the Discovering the World project, which aims to promote inclusive initiatives. This training has enabled the puppet theater staff to create their own audio descriptions.

During the performance, the audio describer narrates what is happening on stage between the characters’ lines, ensuring that the voices are not overshadowed. This approach helps children with visual impairments fully engage with the production’s atmosphere.

For our team, this represents not only a new phase in our development but also a meaningful contribution to the theater's social mission. Throughout its 90-year history, the theater has continuously sought innovation and explored new boundaries in art,  said Almat Amangeldi, director of the State Puppet Theater of Almaty.

Original Author: Dmitry Mostovoy