Opry offers captions for hearing-impaired

? The Grand Ole Opry remains steeped in a tradition of sound, but the 83-year-old country music program will offer captions for the hearing-impaired for the first time today.

About 450 people participating at the Hearing Loss Association of America convention in Nashville this week will attend one of the Opry’s evening shows and will be able to follow along with captions on large projection screens.

Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, Hal Ketchum, Little Jimmy Dickens and others are set to perform.

The vice president and general manager of the Opry, Pete Fisher, said the show is somewhat of an experiment and captions may be used again in the future.