By profession, Lew Balaban is a stenographer working throughout the legal community, but Lew's passion is live theater and he's found a unique way to utilize his stenography skills. Lew is a Live Open Theatre Captioner. Lew uses his laptop and a SocketSerial USB Serial adapter to attach to a VCI 7000 series LED display which is on the stage facing the audience. As the performance takes place, Lew uses his fast fingers to type what the actors are saying and singing. The result is that even those with difficulty hearing can now fully enjoy live theatre.

Although Lew uses his laptop for most of his shows, occasionally a show demands the faster imput of his stenograph writer. "If a show has a lot of ad-libs, yes, I do attach a stenograph writer to my laptop and do realtime." says Lew.

And his audience seems to appreciate it. "I've seen people with cochlear implants and deaf people who have cried because they were finally able to see and enjoy a Broadway show," Lew says. "They are buying season tickets now"

Lew's experience is that live captioning doesn't just benefit those with hearing challenges. "What I've noticed over the years is that open captioning benefits everyone attending. Especially in shows where either the dialoge or lyrics go quickly, or overlapping, people tend to miss words said or sung. So, in reality, although the service is designed for hearing impared folks, it does benefit all in attendance"

Lew Balaban has captioned Broadway shows in New York (Broadway), Philly, D.C. (Kennedy Center), and various places in Floriday. To find out more, you can visit him at www.lewbalabal.blog.com