San Diego Captioned Movie Setback
In May of 2002 the San Diego theater that had been showing captioned
movies for years stopped doing so. I wrote an article in which I said that I
wasn't surprised, and that I didn't blame them for doing so! As you can
imagine, that article caused a bit of a firestorm! Here's the whole story of
those events.
May 2002 - Captioned Movie Setback in San Diego
May 2002 - Here's a response to my article by one of our
newsletter readers.
June 2002 - Here are more responses!
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May 2002
Here's the original article.
When I published the article about the loss of captioned movie
showings in San Diego, I really thought I'd be flooded with responses.
Unfortunately that wasn't the case. I got a couple of responses that
agreed with my thoughts and a couple that didn't state an opinion, but
said they'd be interested to see what kind of responses the article got.
I also got a response from Randall Canote with a different perspective.
Here are his thoughts:
"Your recent article regarding Captioned movies in San Diego
blamed the hearing loss community for the loss of your local daily
captioned movies. You went on to ask "What do you think?"
"I think every first run movie should be captioned at every
showing beginning on the day it is released. I think if the hearies
complain, then the theaters should invest in rear view captioning. I
think we deaf shouldn't have to wait for movies to be captioned MONTHS
after opening night, when the rest of the country has all but forgetten
it. My experience has been that most if not all Captioned movies shown
in theaters will be released on video (with captions) within a few weeks
of the theater showing. My experience has been that is very difficult if
not impossible to get accurate information about showtimes. I think I
would like to have the option of going to the theater at any time and
see any movie that is playing without having to educate every employee
there about the needs of their deaf clients."
Of course I agree with Randall's comments; but I also think we need
to deal with what is and not what "should be". The reality is
that the ADA specifically excluded movie theaters from a responsibility
to provide captioning. I don't think the current administration is going
to add to ADA requirements; the only other way I can think of to ensure
access to captioned movies is to make it economically attractive for the
theaters to provide them. See the next article for more on this issue.
Here are more responses!
