Coalition for Movie Captioning Announces Position on First-Run Films
Coalition for Movie Captioning Releases
Position Paper
February 2001 - Reader Response to Coalition for Movie Captioning Article
Please visit the Coalition
for Movie Captioning Listing in our Resource
Directory for additional information, including contact information.
Editor: An organization called the Coalition for Movie Captioning has
released a position paper on movie access for people with hearing loss.
It's a well-written paper that makes a strong case for full-time
captioning availability. The paper is too long to be reproduced here,
but their press release follows. Please visit the links at the end of
this article to read the position paper in its entirety.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Would you pay $10 to watch a movie with the sound turned off?
Approximately 28 million Americans with hearing loss must do exactly
that. In an effort to draw attention to the accessibility needs of
people who are deaf, hard of hearing or late-deafened, the Coalition for
Movie Captioning (CMC) has released a strongly worded policy statement
asserting the rights of people with hearing loss "to attend any
showing of any movie in any theater at any time."
The CMC, established in 1999, is a Washington, DC-based consortium of
10 organizations* working toward the goal of making all first-run movies
accessible to people with hearing loss. The CMC's position paper
presents evidence of overwhelming demand for captioned movies, and
questions studios' reluctance to make their films accessible to the
growing numbers of people with hearing loss. Studios' rationale that
captioning is "too expensive" simply doesn't stack up, state
CMC member organizations, especially considering the number of consumers
who would benefit from captioning, including those learning English as a
second language. Finally, the position paper asserts that both the
studios and the movie theaters share responsibility for access. Studios
must commit to captioning first-run movies on a timely basis, while
movie theaters must ensure that all assistive listening devices and
captioning technology are provided appropriately.
The CMC position paper concludes with a "statement of
expectations" outlining guidelines for the provision of movie
captioning (excerpts follow).
- Captions must be available on the day and date of a movie's release
- Captions must follow accepted professional standards for readability
- Captioned showings must be indicated as such in all advertisements
- New captioning technology must be evaluated by a cross-section of the
deaf, hard of hearing and late-deafened community to ensure its
effectiveness and accuracy
*To download additional copies of the position paper, visit one of
the CMC member organizations.
- AG Bell
- American Society for Deaf Children
- Association of Late-Deafened
Adults
- Consumer Action Network
- Deaf Seniors of America
- League for the Hard of Hearing
- National Association of the
Deaf
- Self-Help for Hard of Hearing
People
- Telecommunications for the Deaf,
Inc.
February 2001
Last week we published an article about the Coalition for Movie
Captioning and their position on movie captioning. One of our readers
responded with an extremely thought-provoking email, excerpts of which
are included below. Any other thoughts on this? Do you agree or disagree
with these viewpoints?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1) Part of the problem with captioning may be with the theater
managers. Over the past year or so, the number of theaters showing
open-captioned movies here in Los Angeles and Orange counties has
dwindled to three.
The papers in the last year have been full of news about the theater
chains going into bankruptcy. Their problem is long-term leases on older
theaters. Moviegoers prefer the stadium seats and other amenities of the
new theaters. Bankruptcy allows the chains to break the leases and
hopefully return to profitability. Many movie theater chains are or have
been in financial difficulty.
2) Part of the problem is the lack of attendance by the deaf and hard
of hearing community. The theaters here have one to two performances,
early afternoon and at dinnertime, and only on Tuesday and Wednesday.
I've gone to performances in the afternoon where there were only four or
five in the audience. I've gone in the evenings and there have been no
more than 12.
3) Part of the problem is that many of the movies that are captioned
aren't very good, aren't grossing well.
4) Foreign movies tend to be better movies, more character or plot
driven and not laden with special effects or violence. I attend as many
of those as I can because even the best ones don't gross what a minor
American movie does.
5) Part of the problem is the cost of movies in general. You can wait
until it's on HBO, Showtime, etc., or until it's available on video,
knowing the movie will be closed captioned and at most $4 for the whole
family.
