Friday 14 October 2022 05:34 PM Deaf woman is humiliated by Broadway star for using closed-captioning device to ... trends now
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A Broadway diva has been condemned for humiliating a partially-deaf and blind woman during a performance after mistaking her closed-captioning device for a phone.
Lillias White, 71, raged at Samantha Coleman twice during a performance of Hadestown at the Walter Kerr Theater in Manhattan Thursday.
White twice halted her performance to berate Coleman for 'recording on her cellphone,' seemingly not realizing that Coleman was holding an authorized device which allows her to understand the action.
The technology addressed the 'systemic issue' in the theater that excluded hard-of-hearing guests from enjoying a show.
'My hearing is such that I need captioning devices in order to see a show,' Coleman said in an emotional Instagram video. 'And to kind of be ostracized and publicly ridiculed really hurts. It was super embarrassing.'
Coleman called the situation a 'misunderstanding' from White, but ended her video in tears without finishing her final thoughts.
'The people who need to use these devices should feel comfortable and confident in seeing a Broadway show and not be met with shame and embarrassment and anxiety...', she said, before tailing off in tears.
