When I meet Jakob Rosin, he is about to do something no one has ever done before. "I think I'm the first blind camera guy to do a live show" he tells me. "In Estonia at least." And things seem to be going pretty well. "They didn't tell me about any bad things during the rehearsals," he laughs. "So, I think we're good."

Jakob is the chair of the Estonian Blind Union. He's also an accessibility expert, consultant and trainer, who works closely with different organizers to make cultural events and venues as inclusive as possible.

"Very often, you can give a lot of value with a very simple solution," Jakob explains. Sometimes it can be as little as letting people know there are enough disabled parking spaces available at a venue or providing captioning, sign language or audio description at an event, he tells me.

"This already enables so many more people to get the same value," Jakob says. "Because I want to come to an event, whether it's a concert or a conference, a theater show or whatever, and I want to get the same experience as everybody else. But often it's not the case. Often, I have to kind of neglect some of it without getting the full experience. And that's not very fun."

***

When it comes to planning events, part of the problem, Jakob says, is timing.

People frequently only "end up talking about accessibility at a very late stage," he explains. "Let's say we have an event in two weeks. It's very hard and also expensive to do things by then. But if we start planning events with accessibility in mind, then it's a lot easier. So, I encourage people to let me know and come and ask before you start organizing it," he says.

"It's not ignorance," Jakob stresses. "It's just not knowing and not thinking," though he admits this can still be baffling, particularly when working with experienced planners.

"Once you explain the concepts to them, then you kind of see the light bulb appear over their head," he says. "Because then they realize that it's not that hard. But you just need to be aware of different people's needs and how different people use technology and so on – we still have a lot of work to do."

***

The aim of the concert Jakob is here to film and provide accessibility advice for, is to raise awareness about accessibility issues among as many of Estonia's cultural operators as possible and, crucially, what can be done to improve things. To that end, the event, which takes place for the third time in 2024, has been held in a different venue each year, with a different choir and performers also involved each time.

Like many cultural events in Estonia, the concert also has an overriding conceptual theme each time. In 2023, it was "Mina olen olemas" ("I exist" or "I am here"), a phrase that for performers Bella Kurg and Jegor Andrejev, both of whom are deaf, is very apt.

"For me, it means that whoever you may be, whether you're in a wheelchair or you're deaf or whatever, people actually see you. They don't exclude you, and they don't forget about you," Bella says.

"Do you often feel excluded from things?" I ask. "Yes, yes, a lot!" Bella and Jegor both say.

"When I'm on public transport in the city, for example, if the electronic tablets showing what stop is next don't work, then I have no idea when I should get off," Bella explains. "Those kinds of things can happen in all kinds of situations."

Going to the cinema to watch Estonian movies too, also regularly means feeling left out. "I'm an Estonian," Bella says, "this is my culture, these are my movies but often I can't go see them because they don't have Estonian subtitles."

"And if we talk about events that include music, then I frequently can't take part because they haven't thought about a sign language interpreter," Jegor adds.

***

It's no secret how important music is for Estonians and for Bella and Jegor too, music is "so much more than just sounds."

"Many deaf people can't understand," Bella says. "'Like, you're deaf, how can you love music?' But I couldn't live without it. For me, music is like breathing. It's what I feel in my soul. It helps me experience emotions, and I can really express my own emotions through music."

But there's one event in particular that is central to Estonian understandings of national identity and belonging. "I haven't ever experienced the Song Festival yet," says Jegor, "because most of my life there hasn't been an interpreter, so I can't be included."

"When I was a little girl, I think I went there once," Bella says. "But I don't really remember anything. I only saw that everyone's mouths were moving but there was no interpreter, and I didn't really understand what the purpose was or feel the magic in it."

Both were optimistic, however, that things are changing for the better. In 2023, the XIII Youth Song and Dance Festival featured sign language interpretation and visual description, as did the 2024 Tartu Song Festival.

"I'm already thinking that perhaps one day I'll also be able to visit the Laulupidu – the main Song Festival," says Jegor. "Former Estonian president Kersti Kaljulaid said she really wants the (main) Song Festival to also be in sign language," Bella chips in.

"And that gave me goosebumps, it really touched my heart."

***

For Bella and Jegor, sign language interpreters, like Keiti Verbu, who helps facilitate our conversation today, are really important. While they head off to get ready for the show, I take the opportunity to ask Keiti a few questions about her role.

"People assume the reason that I'm a sign language interpreter is that I have deaf parents or somebody deaf in the family, but I don't," Keiti tells me.

Keiti always knew she wanted to work with languages, then after finishing high school she accidentally discovered Estonian sign language interpreting. "I got into that and here I am," she says.

When we meet, in December 2023, Keiti has already been working as a sign language and speech-to-text interpreter for five years. "I really, really love it," she says. "It's really my calling."

But doing sign language interpretation for songs, like Keiti does, is a whole other level.

"Interpreting music is quite new in Estonia," Keiti says. "You really need to think about how to give the songs the proper meaning in sign language," she says. "For a song that's in Estonian, the words and phrases might not be so understandable in sign language. So, I can't just copy and paste (them). I actually have to change it, so the true meaning comes through."

"It actually started when I was in the first year of university. We had some deaf course mates and, so together, we thought, why not do a music video with sign language?" 

So, they did. And the idea soon started to catch on.

"It gave a lot of deaf people the courage to actually post something (online)," Keiti says, adding that one of her coursemates had been too afraid to do something with music before "because of the myth that it's not for deaf people."

But now, things are starting to change.

"More and more people are doing music videos and signing for songs," Keiti says – including Jegor and Bella.

In 2024, both did sign language interpretation during Eesti Laul – the nationwide song competition to decide who represents Estonia at Eurovision. Eventual winners 5MIINUST and Puuluup were so impressed by Jegor's work on their hit "(nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi" that they even invited him to perform live on stage with them when they released a new album this spring.

And as Keiti points out, when it comes to performing live, there's even more to consider.

"Interpreting in general, whatever language it is, needs a lot of rehearsing," Keiti points out, adding that rehearsals for a show like this get underway around a month in advance.

On the day of the performance too, it's crucial for interpreters like Keiti to warm up properly to make sure everything goes according to plan. "It's definitely not the case that I just get here and then start signing straight away," she says.

***

For Karin Tuul, performing live provides a totally different set of challenges. As a conductor, Karin's job is to lead the choir during the concert in a way that ensures everyone can fully enjoy the music they are performing.

"People who are signing on a daily basis have very expressive faces and very expressive body language," Karin says. "But if you're a choir singer, you are basically used to just standing straight with your arms across our body or holding the (musical) scores."

But for "Mina olen olemas" concert, Karin explains: "We have to be more alive. And if you know Estonians, we are not very alive people," she laughs… "and not very emotional as well. So that's the most difficult part for us."

This is not the first time Karin has conducted during an event like this. Along with her husband, artistic director and conductor Edwin Tuul, this is the second time Karin has been involved.

Though she doesn't use it during the performance – as a conductor, her hands are needed to control the tempo and dynamics of the choir – Karin has learned Estonian sign language, an experience she describes as "very eye-opening and interesting."

"The only sad part is that right now so many of my singers would like to learn more (Estonian sign language) But to be honest, there is no place to learn. So, I think we should fix that," Karin says.

"I think it's a really important cause because Estonia is a small country and we don't have a lot of our own things. So, we're just trying to point out some of the flaws in the system. We want to make sure that everybody really is a part of cultural events in Estonia."

***

It's almost time for the show and as I reflect on the conversations I've had with different participants, there are a few common threads that have emerged.

Chief among them seems to be that everyone can do something to make cultural events more accessible – even if it's something quite small.

"You don't need to know everything," Jakob Rosin says. "That's what accessibility consultants and experts are for – that's what I'm doing. So, just come and ask and let's do it." All people need to start with, Rosin says, is the will to help. "And we have the knowledge – so, let's put those two things together."

And it's not only at cultural events that there's still plenty of room for improvement.

"I recently came across a good example, well not a good example but a bad example," Jakob says. "There was a square (in Tallinn) and at one end there was a pharmacy and at the other end was a store for socks."

"The store for socks had an accessible ramp. So, somebody with a wheelchair could just enter the store easily. But the pharmacy had three very tall steps," he says.

"Now, I wouldn't want to say that a person with a wheelchair doesn't need any socks – definitely they do and (the ramp) is an admirable contribution. But I would say that a pharmacy should get priority in this kind of situation. So, we just need to think these things through."

"I'd say most Estonians are introvert," says interpreter Keiti Verbu about what could be done to include deaf people more. "They don't want to make eye contact or anything. But I would encourage people to be braver about using body language if they don't know how to communicate with the other person. That already gives a warm feeling to them and also why not learn two basic signs – 'Tere' ('Hello'), and 'Aitäh' ('thank you')?"

"If there's something you really want to do then no matter what the difficulties you have in your life whether you're deaf or have another disability, it shouldn't stop you," says Jegor.

"Today, we even have a blind camera operator filming the whole thing – that's absolutely crazy in a really positive way," he smiles. "I want to break the myth that deaf people can't sing, can't do this or can't do that. People should really let go of these really common myths and start to see the reality of what we actually can do."

***

On Tuesday, December 3, the third annual inclusivity concert "Elukoor" (Life Choir" takes place at Tallinn's Kaja Cultural Center.

The event, which features live performances from Mari Kalkun and Haldi among others, starts at 7 p.m. and is free to attend. It will also be shown live on ETV2 here.

More information is available here.

Editor's note: Michael Cole carried out these interviews at last year's concert.

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