Hearing loss disconnects people from life, affecting them physically, emotionally, behaviorally, work-wise, and socially. It’s also one of the most overlooked and invisible disabilities.

“Disability” and “accessibility” usually refer to accommodating wheelchairs. But enabling “effective communication” for the deaf isn’t considered by public venues and events, especially at concerts and music festivals.

Mexico City hosts +35 events everyday. Still, this disability has the least accessibility within the entertainment industry for the +2 million DHoH people in Mexico and, despite government regulations supposedly ensure non-discrimination towards people with disabilities, there are no systems ensuring their compliance.

Corona is the best selling Mexican beer worldwide whose main value is being inclusive for all. However, despite its heavy influence in entertainment sponsoring the biggest music festivals in Mexico, the industry remains non-inclusive to the DHoH.

Corona is for everyone and music should be too.

How could Corona help make music accessible for all?

Music is social and therapeutic.

The WHO describes health as a state of complete physical/mental/social well-being.

Lack of access to music and entertainment for people with physical disabilities inherently excludes and alienates them from their communities, causing emotional stress and hindering mental and social well-being.

Using Corona’s influence within the entertainment industry through sponsoring the biggest music festivals in the country, we made music accessible for all by including those who can’t hear it but can definitely feel it: the DHoH.

Sound waves are produced by the rapid vibration of a body, meaning sound can also be tactile. The human body perceives them through hearing and interprets them through the brain as sounds.

So, we turned the audible into tactile and enabled music for everyone.

FEELSTREAM by Corona is the first inclusive brand experience in music festivals for the DHoH in Mexico, allowing music to be felt instead of heard.

Enjoying music at a live concert increases feelings of well-being, self-worth, closeness to others, and mental stimulation (Variety, 2018. “Going to concerts is good for your health”). Music is social in its essence; going to a concert with friends strengthens social bonds, and helps to unwind, relax, and disconnect from everyday situations. Music is a mood and state of mind that should be accessible to everyone.

FEELSTREAM by Corona mainly targets the DHoH, who have lived excluded from these experiences and dreamt to be able to enjoy live music, as well as the people surrounding them who are also indirectly affected by hearing disabilities.

At the same time, the goal of FEELSTREAM by Corona is to make deafness as visible as other physical disabilities and influence public policy and decision makers on the importance of enabling more industries for the DHoH.

Together with Subpac and NGO SilencioAC, we enabled portable backpack-like devices responsive to sound, to translate low-pitched frequencies into vibrations, literally turning the human body into a sound wave transmitter.

FEELSTREAM by Corona now enables the biggest music festivals in Mexico so DHoH people can “hear” music by feeling it.

A designated area on site is set up with sound equipment, engineers, audiologists, and Mexican Sign Language (MSL) interpreters signing music in real-time for ideological background. During the launch in Corona Capital 2018, guests also enjoyed meet-&-greets with MGMT & Bastille, who “felt” their songs for the first time.

With the support of Facebook, we also turned the festival’s live transmission into the first live streaming enabled for the DHoH in the world, as we invited part of the deaf community in Guadalajara to enjoy the show in an equipped room with screens, our backpacks, and two interpreters.

In line with Corona’s inclusivity values, FEELSTREAM by Corona has effectively changed the way DHoH people experience music. It is now active at every major music festival and venue in Mexico, and staff is being trained in MSL.

This has set the bar for the industry to become inclusive for the DHoH and other disabilities, and has also started to influence public policy with the federal government, shedding light on the need for stricter evaluation systems that ensure non-discrimination regulations are complied with.

The DHoH community, through Silencio AC, has also directly reached out to testify how FEELSTREAM by Corona has changed their lives.

Bands who have tried our technology at festivals will replicate FEELSTREAM by Corona during their tours.

+150 print/TV/radio/digital articles have generated +25 million impacts and +USD$1,000,000 ROI, increasing meaningful attribute / brand love and +98% positive sentiment (Millward, 2019).