The recent release of "Black Panther" has led to positive movie-going experiences, but is also calling attention to issues of accessibility in movie theaters. Deaf activist Nyle DiMarco tweeted about his experience seeing the film at an AMC theater. He was given a closed captioning device and experienced many problems with it, tweeting, “Update: 10 mins into Black Panther, I had to leave. It was awful. Kept skipping lines. The difference of focus while switching, gave me a headache. And I kept missing important scenes. AMC Theaters made me feel SO disabled.”
Movie theaters should provide open captioning to let deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences enjoy movies just as much as hearing audiences.
Movies are difficult when you are deaf or hard-of-hearing, especially big blockbuster movies like "Black Panther" or "The Last Jedi" that rely on loud action scenes with dialogue. It is hard to make out the dialogue and follow the movie as a whole. Captions make the entire experience much easier.
Closed captions, in a more general sense, refer to captions supported by the user that can be turned on and off. Open captions are always in view and cannot be turned off. Closed captions are often available for DVDs, Netflix, television and anything meant to be viewed at home.
In the case of movie theaters, closed captions have to be delivered via closed captions machines, as pictured in DiMarco’s tweet. Many responses to the tweet show other deaf and hard-of-hearing moviegoers had similar experiences with the inconvenient closed caption machines.
Movie theaters should simply use open captioning. Many theaters provide showings with open captions, but often only at certain times, which is inconvenient if someone wanted to see a big blockbuster on its opening weekend. The movie experience for deaf people should not have to be different.
Hawaii has a law requiring movie theaters to have at least two movie showings a week with open captions. This is a start, as some theaters do not provide open captions at all, but it is far from perfect. Deaf and hard of hearing audiences should not have only two movie times a week to choose from, especially when these times may be inconvenient.
Movie theaters should use open captioning as often as possible, if not always. This includes movie premiere weekends and other general high traffic times. Any complaints hearing moviegoers may have about the captions on screen being “annoying” are meaningless in the face of complaints from deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences that cannot hear and enjoy movies to begin with.
A Twitter user responded to DiMarco’s original tweet, saying, “If you are deaf or blind it seems movies aren’t for you and you should probably pursue other hobbies.” DiMarco responded by saying this is what deaf people deal with every day.
Having a disability does not mean you should not be able to participate in things that you love, and it is absolutely heartless and insensitive to suggest so. This includes movies. Open captioning is a small change that would make movies more accessible and enjoyable for a deaf audiences.
