1:47am UK, Monday February 16, 2004

Film fans with hearing and sight difficulties are to reap the dividend from a £500,000 Lottery-funded investment in new cinema equipment.

Seventy eight cinemas across England - approximately one in seven - will benefit from the UK Film Council's Cinema Access Programme.

They will be kitted out with captioning and audio-description equipment.

At present only 22 cinemas in England are fitted out with such equipment.

A web-based information service - www.yourlocalcinema.com - has also been developed to inform those with sensory impairments about films being screened at local cinemas.

Peter Buckingham, head of the UK Film Council's Distribution and Exhibition Fund, said: "We want to help all sectors of the community to enjoy film, which is such an important part of our culture. In the past, too many people with impaired sight and hearing have been cut off from the world of cinema."

Dr John Low, chief executive of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, said: "Deaf and hard of hearing people have been excluded from the enjoyment of cinema since the advent of the talkies back in the 1920s.

"The installation of this equipment greatly expands access and choice for large numbers of deaf and blind and partially sighted people."