For audience members who are Deaf or living with hearing loss, live entertainment experiences often involve watching an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter or reading captioning to follow along. But what if you could also feel the performance?

That question is being answered at Omaha Performing Arts (O-pa), one of the first organizations in the world to pilot the SoundShirt, a haptic, wearable technology that transforms sound into touch. The lightweight, zip-up jacket contains 28 high-resolution sound actuators that transmit music and other sound vibrations across the body, allowing users to experience live events through real-time physical sensation.

Through pre-programmed vibrations, the SoundShirt lets users feel the instruments on stage. With a symphony, cellos might buzz in one area of the shirt, and violins in another. Those areas vibrate depending on which instrument is being played and when. “We’ve had enthusiastic responses from persons with a range of hearing abilities that, paired with ASL, take the joy of a live concert to a whole new, almost immersive, experience,” Andy Cassano, VP of Programming and Education for Omaha Performing Arts, says.

As an orchestra swells, a rock and roll drummer hits a beat, or a football crowd roars, sensations ripple across the SoundShirt in real time, all controlled by production personnel.

Developed by London-based CuteCircuit, the technology came to Omaha after months of research, community consultation and creative planning. Cassano said, “The more and more I investigated about this technology, I kept thinking to myself, why can’t we do this in Omaha?”

Ultimately, the decision to bring the SoundShirt to O-pa came nearly two years after the initial investigations began. Cassano and his colleagues were determined to find a product that could integrate across O-pa’s programming as a scalable and sustainable accessibility offering.

“If we were going to do this, we wanted to make the equipment available to all of our performances. The technology was already in use by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and they had nothing but great things to say about its consistency,” Cassano says. “When we reached out, CuteCircuit was responsive (also a key factor) and was able to demonstrate very clearly that while still advancing their work, the product was exceptionally versatile, easy to use, easy to update, easy to care for and with capabilities that would not make the tech obsolete in a short timeframe. While their work is mostly in Europe, you can see they are integrating wide-ranging options from video gaming, to live sports, symphony orchestras, to EDM.”

O-pa officially unveiled the SoundShirt in late May 2025, during a Voices AMPLIFIED! event held at the Holland Center and titled “Interwoven: Where Fashion & Technology Connect.” The program featured a fashion show of adaptive designs by and for people with disabilities, followed by a silent disco where attendees could try the SoundShirt for themselves. O-pa offered "Choose-What-You-Pay" pricing with a $0 option to ensure cost was not a barrier to attending.

From a ticketing perspective, launching a program like the SoundShirt takes significant coordination behind the scenes. “I wore it when we first got them in-house … they come in different sizes, and we will have five on hand to use over the next year,” Ashley Voorhees, Vice President of Administrative Services for Omaha Performing Arts and INTIX Board Chair, says. “Our friends at Lyric Opera use it too, so we have learned from them. We have 12 performances over the next year that will [use the technology], and we are partnering with our opera colleagues, our friends at the symphony and possibly two Broadway shows.”

Voorhees explains that the technology must be programmed specifically for each event, and O-pa’s production team works closely with sound engineers and show producers to prepare. “It has to be done in advance. We have designated the shows where it will be available,” she says. “Our production team will work with the show’s production side of things, so when a guest shows up, it will be all ready to go.”

Sanitation and sizing are also carefully managed. The jackets are sterilized after each use, and the O-pa team is working with community members to determine the best way to collect sizing information, either through the ticketing system or direct outreach by O-pa staff.

In terms of price, each SoundShirt costs approximately $2,500. Funding has come through a combination of internal investment, sponsorships and grants. “In the grand scheme of things, it is not that expensive,” Voorhees says. “We knew we absolutely had to do it when it was presented to us.”

O-pa is committed to offering the SoundShirt as a free accessibility accommodation. Cassano says, “It really is as simple as just letting us know that you need the program, you need the equipment. And at that simple request, we can make sure that it is available.”

Integral to the project’s success is the involvement of Omaha’s Deaf and hard-of-hearing community. O-pa worked with individuals with lived experience, ASL interpreters and the Nebraska Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to evaluate the technology and refine how it would be offered.

“If we can do one more thing to reduce the barrier to persons who want to come experience the joy, the community, the need for live arts, then why not this?” Cassano says. “When sound is so essential to live experiences, and we can intentionally make that better for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing [community]? That’s a no-brainer.”

O-pa will pilot the SoundShirt during different events over the next 12 months. Eventually, it will be added to the O-pa’s list of free accessibility tools.

“It’s such a little thing to add, but it’s completely transformative,” Cassano says. “People who are Deaf and hard of hearing know that they are welcome, that we want them to be here, and that hopefully this makes it a lot easier and a lot more memorable.”

Voorhees adds that an online reservation option is in development and may mirror the way guests currently request accessible seating, via checkboxes or preferences during the ticket-buying process. “We are definitely going to be putting something in place as a reserve in advance, because we are limited in terms of how many we have,” she explains. “Those details are getting worked out over the summer. We are hoping to say that similarly to how you would book an accessibility seat online, you can just checkmark that you want it reserved for you for the events it is available for.”

Internally, the staff at O-pa has embraced the innovation with incredible enthusiasm. “To finally be able to deploy it, show everybody, and provide an additional accommodation or resource to experience this live is fantastic,” Voorhees shares.

Cassano agrees. “It has been amazing to see the entire organization come together to make it happen. Production, front of house, ticketing, programming, marketing, HR, senior administration [and] development have all been so excited but also so strategic in how we carefully implement this new idea alongside our community.”

While the SoundShirt was developed with Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences in mind, its potential for broader accessibility has already begun to emerge. Cassano shares this story from his conversations during the sales process: “[CuteCircuit was] at a conference in Europe demoing the shirt, and a group of persons who were blind and [had] low vision tried the shirt demo as well. They told the creators that for the first time, they could ‘see’ the symphony or band on the stage because the shirt’s haptic vibrators created a mental picture of the stage.”

By taking bold steps to explore haptic technology, Omaha Performing Arts is helping reshape what access looks and feels like in live entertainment. And in doing so, they are sending a powerful message: Everyone deserves to feel the music.