About us
Built For Good’s logo
We are Built For Good Technology Ltd. (BFG), a British technology start-up based in the East Midlands. Our mission is to become the world’s leading provider of innovative accessibility solutions for people who want to enjoy the collective experience of going to the cinema and the theatre.
BFG was co-founded in 2020 by Tabitha, Tim and Jonathan. We met at the National Theatre (NT) in London, where we combined our accessibility and technical expertise to develop the world’s first closed captioning solution for theatre, the ‘smart caption glasses’, which are still in use at the NT today.
WatchWord was our first accessibility product which was launched in April 2024. Since then, it has been installed at 8 cinemas across the UK. Our latest development, WatchWord Live, uses artificial intelligence to deliver perfectly timed closed captions to theatre audiences and is currently undergoing trials at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia, where it has received incredible feedback from users.
With the support of grant funding from the UK Cinema Association and Innovate UK, we developed WatchWord to address a critical gap in accessibility for individuals with hearing loss. Unlike mainstream technologies designed for broad commercial appeal, WatchWord has been developed to meet the specific needs of a marginalised group, empowering them to participate fully in cultural activities.
As a small technology start-up, we rely on external funding and grassroots advocacy to raise awareness and expand access to our solutions. If you would like to support our mission, you can donate through our GoFundMe page, helping cinemas install WatchWord or contributing to us directly so we can continue our research and development programme. Together, we can advance accessibility technologies and create a more inclusive society where everyone can fully participate.
Tim, Tabitha & Jonathan
Tabitha Allum
Prior to co-founding Built For Good, Tabitha worked freelance on a wide range of arts and charity projects, supporting organisations with their strategies and fundraising.
Between 2005 and 2014, she was the Chief Executive of Stagetext, the charity which provides captioning for arts events. During this time she raised £2.5m in funding to support the organisation and more than doubled the size of the team.
Prior to running Stagetext, Tabitha worked for Arts Council England where she had responsibility for supporting arts venues to improve their accessibility.
Tim Middleton
Tim has a background in theatre sound and technical systems, primarily at the National Theatre and as a freelancer.
He is a specialist in developing accessibility systems for the entertainment sector. He has been writing software for over 20 years, and was responsible for specifying and integrating the NT’s smart caption glasses project between 2016 and 2019.
As our Chief Technology Officer, Tim project manages the technical development of WatchWord and WatchWord Live.
Jonathan Suffolk
Jonathan has spent over 30 years working behind the scenes in technical theatre, formerly as the head of sound at Chichester Festival Theatre and the NT, he held responsibility for supporting and improving the provision of access services, which led the smart caption glasses project which he lead on behalf of the NT, while Technical Director.
Awards
In 2019, we were recipients of the AbilityNet Tech4Good award for Inclusive Design for our work on the Smart Caption Glasses system. Read more here (open a new browser window).
AbilityNet Tech4Good Awards 2019 winners
BFG worked with Atomic to develop the WatchWord user interface and in May 2024, we were honoured with a prestigious Global Business Technology award for our collaboration on a groundbreaking AR smart glasses closed captioning system.
The award recognised the significant contribution made by the product to accessibility in the entertainment industry. Read more here (opens in a new browser window).
