National Association of the Deaf

From Thursday through Saturday of the big July 4, 2002 holiday weekend for moviegoers, captioned movies were shown on only 24 of the more than 34,000 movie theater screens in the U.S., and many states did not have a single movie with captions showing in a theater. This was one of the findings in a status report for year 2002 released today by the national Coalition for Movie Captioning. The coalition's goal is to make it possible for the nation's 28 million individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, and late-deafened to attend any showing of any movie in any theater at any time, with equal access through high quality captioning.

"Twelve years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which encouraged the captioning of movies, this is all too common," said Cheryl Heppner, who chairs the coalition. "Obviously encouragement has not been working."

There are two primary types of captioned movies in the U.S. Open captioned movies make the dialogue and other audio information available directly on the screen and can be shown in any theater. The second type, Rear Window Captioning, can be seen by viewers who borrow special equipment at a theater equipped with the system.

Only a limited number of copies of captioned movies are made available, and they often arrive in theaters weeks or months after their release. "Lord of the Rings: Two Towers" debuted with captions January 17 in just five locations in the U.S. It was released on December 18, 2002. "Spider-Man", "Austin Powers: Goldmember", "XXX," "Santa Clause 2", "Minority Report," "The Ring", "Mr. Deeds", and "Sweet Home Alabama" are among the movies grossing more than $100 million in 2002 that studios did not release with open captions. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Die Another Day", also on the $100 million list, are being released with open captions this month.

The number of films available with Rear Window Captioning grew in 2002, but there were still less than 30 non-IMAX screens in the U.S. showing first-run movies each week. Theaters outfitted with this equipment did not always use it to make a captioned film available.

Theatergoers report that theaters do little or nothing to appropriately advertise their captioned movie showings. Theaters do not have signs informing of the availability of captioned movies. Deaf and hard of hearing people find it difficult or impossible to navigate theater voice menu systems, and callers who reach a live person working at a theater often find that person has no information about when films will be available or at what show times. Open captioned films are rarely shown during popular weekend times.

Harry Potter is big in the home of Eileen McCartin. She and her family were eager to see "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" when it began showing up in area theaters, "Imagine my disappointment when none of the dozen screens in the area had a captioned version," she said. McCartin, who is deaf, depends on the captions, which are similar to subtitles, to understand the dialogue and be able to share her family's enjoyment of movies.

Barbara Raimondo, who has two deaf children, was equally frustrated during the recent holiday season. "Although there are lots of blockbuster movies out this time of year, we found nothing with captions in the movie pages during my children's two week winter break from school," she said. "This means my kids don't get to go to the movies like hearing children and enjoy an afternoon eating popcorn and watching the latest flicks.

Asks Raimondo, "Why does Hollywood treat my children like second class citizens?

The experiences of these two families echo those of thousands of others, say members of the Coalition for Movie Captioning

"It is extremely difficult to believe that it is too expensive for studios to provide captioning of their movies when copies are routinely subtitled for distribution in non-English speaking countries," Heppner said. "Those copies can also be made available at the same time the film is released in the United States so there's no excuse for the delay in making captioned versions available here.

The Coalition for Movie Captioning welcomes new organizations and individual members. For more information, contact NVRCheryl@aol.com, battat@shhh.org, or jimhouse@tdi-online.org.

To view the coalition's mission statement, position paper and statement of expectations:
CMC Position Statement
http://www.shhh.org/news/cmcpp.cfm
http://www.tdi-online.org/fs_cmc_position_paper.html