Captioning devices in theaters?

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jabberwo0cky

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Hey there,
This is just a sort of prelim to see if anyone is interested in standing with me on this.
I am talking about captioning in movie theaters. In the past, my boyfriend (deaf) and me (hearing) were pretty frequent moviegoers. We could always find a local theater that had a couple showings for open captions on the movie screen. About a year and a half ago, I was checking on captionfish and could not find a single theater in the state of Minnesota with open captions. It has now switched to glasses, or some variation of the big honkin' device that fits in your cup holder.
Flabbergasted, we decided to give these "CC glasses" a chance.
In short, our response was "NEVER AGAIN."
First of all, the second you move an inch, so do the captions. And heaven forbid you get hot and want to take off your sweatshirt.
We both left the theater with a headache and a refund. The manager was shocked, saying this is the first negative feedback she had received.

I guess I'm a little curious as to the opinion of the general Deaf community on this issue. I've heard mixed reviews, seems like it's either a love it or hate it thing. IMO it's not equal access at all. I saw a vlog once from a Deaf gentleman talking about a "scorecard" comparing the experience a Deaf person has going into a movie and having to jump through the hoops (handing over drivers license, managing the clunky device while trying to buy popcorn, etc) and a hearing person walking into a movie with captions on the screen ("oh darn, the movie has the words on the screen!").

I would love to compile some vlogs and get them captioned so hearing people can understand, and figure out how to get these to someone higher up in a Theater company. I know Regal Cinemas is the big one around here.

Is anyone aware of the history or the events that led up to the demise of open captioning and the implication of these closed captioning devices? Anyone have any interest in pursuing this?

Would love some opinions none way or another.

Thanks!! :)
 
I guess I should have read down a little further, because I see that there is a huge thread about CC glasses.
I would still love to get some feedback about pursuing something more for getting open captions back!
 
I have not tried Sony-DV out yet but if I did, I know I would not be happy with it because I couldn't keep my head still for two hours.

I doubt open captions will be back ever. Anyway suppose if it's back, I think they should make glasses that make captions disappear for hearing people who don't like captions. :cool2:
 
I was instrumental in getting a local theatre to have open captions on Mondays and Tuesdays. It is one of those theatres that include tables with your seat and you can sit and chomp on pizza or a hamburger while you watch the movie. The local deaf showed no interest at all because the admission was $10.00 and they could rent movies to watch at home for less than that. And nowadays with Netflix so easy to acquire, the Deaf just don't want to pay that much. Personally I too prefer to watch my movies at home where I have more control -- I can stop and start anytime I want.
 
Kitty Kai said:
I was instrumental in getting a local theatre to have open captions on Mondays and Tuesdays. It is one of those theatres that include tables with your seat and you can sit and chomp on pizza or a hamburger while you watch the movie.
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That's new to me. What is the max number of people allowed?
Kitty Kai said:
The local deaf showed no interest at all because the admission was $10.00 and they could rent movies to watch at home for less than that. And nowadays with Netflix so easy to acquire, the Deaf just don't want to pay that much. Personally I too prefer to watch my movies at home where I have more control -- I can stop and start anytime I want.
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That's true. I seldom go out to watch movies since we have the home entertainment available.
 
I was instrumental in getting a local theatre to have open captions on Mondays and Tuesdays. It is one of those theatres that include tables with your seat and you can sit and chomp on pizza or a hamburger while you watch the movie.
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I've heard of this- a friend of mine in Missouri says she and her partner go to one all the time..says it is WELL worth the money what they offer... cushy chairs.. menu, drinks and if I remember NO KIDS ALLOWED lol.

Jabberwocky could you post the thread you did find please?

I've tried the caption glasses in the Regal theater near where I live. It's not SO bad but it does get unwieldy when you already wear glasses (thank heavens I no longer have 'coke bottle' glasses...). Yes it is kind of a pain that the captions move with the head but I got used to that. I only get a headache because it is a pain to have both my regular glasses AND these. :hmm: maybe next time I will try a bit without my regular glasses as I can sort of see enough without them- but depends on what the reading material medium and the size font is. I've never had to hand over my driver's license to obtain a pair though. Maybe the first time- I can't recall. But since then nope.


Better than the rear view captioning- I've never experienced this but from what I can tell, that was even worse.. you have to look up and down between the little mirror for the captions and the screen for the picture.
 
I don't know maybe it's me but I don't think it's fair for them to make deaf people look like freaks with those devices. Years ago, before glasses were invented, they had one of those square clear window that looks like a flag, stick it into your cup holder. Look through the glass to see captions. Tried it once at a movie theater. Then few years later I went to Orlando, to I think, Universal Studios and they had that available for a quick film. I opted not to. Too embarrassing at the time in that kind of setting.

Now that I'm older, I probably would do it.
 
meh... no one has ever said anything or looked at me funny when I wear 'em plus who can see in the dark anyway? :-D. If they ARE staring I don't noticed because I'm used to it anyway. Plus- to me it's no different than somebody wearing those google glasses lol.

But yeah I do hope they improve on the technology- there's plenty of room to make it better.
 
CrazyPaul said:
I doubt open captions will be back ever. Anyway suppose if it's back, I think they should make glasses that make captions disappear for hearing people who don't like captions. :cool2:
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YES!!!

I just don't think I'd call glasses or the rear window deals "accessible." Sure, nice for hearing people so they don't get soooooo annoyed with captions. As a hearing person I actually like captions. I keep them on even when my honey isn't around. I wish I could find this vlog that I watched a couple years ago... basically it's a guy keeping a "scorecard" comparing a Deaf person's experience going into a movie (with assistive devices) and a hearing person going to a movie and seeing captions on the screen.

deaf person with assistive device - goes in, pays for ticket, must hand over drivers license (-1). gets big clunky device to walk around with (-1) goes to buy popcorn and drink, trying to do that while managing big clunky device (-1) walks into the theater, everyone wondering what he is doing with that big clunky device (-1) sits down, positions the thing in the cupholder, where does he put his drink if there's someone next to him? (-1) movie starts, so on and so forth... afterwards, all the other people leave the theater, deaf person has to go back to get his drivers license and hand over the device (-1). hearing person goes in and sits down, enjoys movie, leaves, no issues.

hearing person with captioned film - goes through the exact same process as the deaf guy (minus getting the clunky device), sits down in the movie.... "oh crap, captions!" (-1) but still can watch the movie. deaf person can sit down and watch the movie with no assistive device, no hassle, doesn't have to hand over his driver's license, etc.

Now THAT is accessible. Has anyone seen this vlog?

Here is a link to that other thread about CC glasses - http://www.alldeaf.com/captioning-s...4-closed-captioned-glasses-regal-cinemas.html
 
I am from New Zealand. So on the whole over in the States most movie theaters do not have captions (be it on certain days and times?) hardly at all or its pretty rare?
Or do most have options for hearing challenged people to use a device that has captions?

Here in NZ it's pretty much non-existent save for foreign language films. I haven't been to the movies for ages because why pay full price to miss out on 80-90% of what's been said. Only once in the past, i was charged a senior citizens price because of my deafness. But i doubt that would happen again. I think some cinemas might of tried to have a captions on a given day, like a monday morning with a slightly cheaper price. But not enough numbers of people coming to justify it. I would suspect they probably didn't advertise the fact or give it enough time for word to get around.

Mostly i enjoy watching movies at home, its just a much longer wait from when they are shown at the theatre until they come out on blu-ray or dvd where there will be subtitles/captions. However sometimes there is a new movie out that i would like to to see on the big screen but would not being able to hear the dialogue would ruin the experience and also when i finally get to see with subtitles on blu-ray since the plot would already been spoiled for me.

I think movie theatres mainly make their money on their over priced food and drinks, as most sales goes to the movie studios and distributors. With the internet and streaming i see movie theatres downsizing. Still the big screen and 3D can be a more enjoyable experience but not for people with hearing problems, unless its a foreign film. Lets hope in the future the time between when films are release and come out on blu-ray or dvd are shortened.

I think unless cinemas are forces to use captions on a given day and time, where that knowledge is make known to the public and hoh/deaf patrons go frequently enough for it to remain in place things will remain the same.
 
Here in the US as far as I know only one movie theater chain (Regal Cinemas) have captioning glasses in ALL of their theaters. I go to the one here in town fairly regularly and 'borrow' them all the time. Sometimes there's hiccups of course but easily fixed.
 
There was a movie theater in Boston , Ma that showed a lot of foreign films and I went there a lot b/c they had subtitled . I think it was called Orwell theater , this was years ago. I wish there was a movie theater like that near me now.
 
Fiance and i love the caption technology at our theater. We have the one that you put in the cup holder. And its pretty lightweight. When we used it the first time he was impressed. We go to the movie theater for the experience so having captions is a plus.
 
atmannel said:
Fiance and i love the caption technology at our theater. We have the one that you put in the cup holder. And its pretty lightweight. When we used it the first time he was impressed. We go to the movie theater for the experience so having captions is a plus.
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Same here.

A lot of theaters here have those digital captioning that fit in your cup holder.
 
The Regal Cinema theater in Lexington, KY offers eye glasses that displays captions for any movie. I wasn't aware of this until a few months ago and I decided to watch 22 Jump Street. In the past, this same theater only showed captioned movies for select titles and the captions appeared on screen but now captions for any movie? That's a huge step forward and satisfies everyone. Sadly, I can't afford to go weekly or I would. Def gonna catch a flick sometime next month depending on what's playing.
 
Check to see if they have any special events- I know here at our Regal every Tuesday the ticket prices are reduced- add in the Regal Cinema card- it's not a bad day. My aunt and I go as often as we can on Tuesdays (if the movies are good- this summer has sucked for movies).

I've been using the captions glasses for hmm.. At least 6 months now I think. They know me on sight now lol.
 
How much are these reduced prices? I paid $10 for my ticket and I find that nuts or maybe it is 'normal'? That was my first tme at the theater in nearly 3+ years so Im unsure what a normal ticket fee is
 
$12 is a normal price here and Tuesdays is $6.00 per person. Next time we go I'll pay closer attention. Might be today but haven't heard from aunt.
 
I missed old days where we can see movies with open caption... I have tried all.. the worse captioning device is rear window caption system! I would rather watch with CaptiView over Sony-DV glasses. Thanks to technology where we can go movies anytime instead of wait for months to see one with open captions. It's cheaper to get tickets from Costco and stock it for last minute plan. 12-14 bucks is ridiculous...
 
I agree about open captions. Fyi, there is a meeting to meet with regal folks to talk about captioning tommarow in Rochester ny at the double tree hotel . We are hoping to have a large turnout and prove there IS a need to have open captions.

Sent from my LG-LS980 using AllDeaf App mobile app
 
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