Albany, N.Y. – Did you catch the new movie that everyone’s talking about at school and work? If you’re visually or hearing-impaired, there’s a good chance you couldn’t. But that’s slowly changing.
Nationwide, more than 150 movie theaters have added special systems to help the deaf, hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired, according to the nonprofit National Center for Accessible Media.
Most of those theaters are in major cities that made the move voluntarily, but states are putting pressure on theater chains to spread the technology much farther or risk discrimination lawsuits.
In New Jersey, four movie-theater chains agreed under pressure last year to install captioning technology in theaters statewide. The attorney general filed a discrimination complaint against a fifth chain that didn’t go along.
A similar deal being announced in New York today involves eight national theater chains. The chains agreed to implement technology to help the visually and hearing-impaired enjoy movies in 140 theaters across New York state – up from about a dozen now.
“Movies are an important part of popular culture,” said New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. “Every adult and child should be able to enjoy a film with family and friends, especially during the holiday season.”
Like those in the New Jersey agreement, the New York theaters will add Rear Window captioning, in which hearing-disabled customers can use an acrylic panel to read captioning projected in reverse to the back of the theater.
They also would provide listening devices more compatible with hearing aids; most headsets used now for the disabled only amplify a movie’s soundtrack.
Thirty-eight of the New York theaters will provide on-screen captioning of some movies and headsets that offer descriptive narration of films under the deal.
Representatives of Loews Entertainment Cineplex, AMC Entertainment and Regal Entertainment Group, three of the largest chains, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. E-mail and phone messages left Friday were not returned by the others. In addition to Loews, AMC and Regal, the deal was agreed to by Carmike Cinemas, Clearview Cinemas, Dipson Theatres, National Amusements and Zurich Cinemas.
The American Foundation for the Blind said the measures are good for everyone involved – by making theaters accessible, more customers will come.
“It’s not only seeing it; it’s understanding it,” said Joseph Gordon of Self Help for Hard of Hearing People in New York City. He said people with even moderate hearing difficulties have trouble distinguishing between words like “tomato” and “potato.”
