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Hard of Hearing and Going to the Movies: How do you deal with it?
Hearing Loss | Last Active: Mar 29, 2020 | Replies (33)Comment receiving replies
Most theaters do have captioning devices. However, in some places they may not. Quite possibly, those places...mostly smaller theaters...may have never been asked to provide them. Yes, they are required by the Disabilities Act, but that act also says that devices must be requested in advance, and cannot create a hardship to the provider. It's important to let the theater staff know if a device is not working properly. It's hard though, because that can mean walking out of the movie after it has started and you realize it's not working. I've found that few of the previews are captioned, so you don't know until the movie begins. Most important though; theater management needs to know if you have had problems with the equipment they provide. It won't improve otherwise. It's so easy to just sit back and complain without trying to effect positive change. Please be proactive in a nice way. It works.
Replies to "Most theaters do have captioning devices. However, in some places they may not. Quite possibly, those..."
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate it. However, the point I was trying to make is that it would be great if all theaters started using captioning on their screens instead of offering devices that usually don't work throughout the length of the film. When I watched the foreign film Parasite with captioning on the screen, I realized that on screen captioning in no way interferes with how the hearing abled are able to enjoy the film. On screen captioning is the solution for the hearing impaired so that we are able to enjoy a movie without having a device that stops in the middle of a film or worse doesn't even work at all. We, hearing impaired do not like having to get up and go to the lobby to get another device and lose out significantly to the thread of the film. The Americans with Disabilities Act is way behind schedule in helping us with hearing impairment.
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I have had problems with devices and had spoken up nicely. In fact with the cup holder device- they can tell if it’s working . Ritz theaters in Phila are awesome. They have after my suggestion have down at the beginning to check if the device is working. It will be very hard for small theatres to do it. Costs are very high. I was told how much- yikes
It would be very hard if not enough folks needs them. Before this crazy thing happens; theatres are not filming like they used to. We lost one of the Ritz ones.