Comments on: A Night at the Movies

By: kim

kim — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:54:54 +0000

Michele– Try fomdi.com. Type in your zip code and all the theaters that offer some form of captioning in your area will pop up. It’s a pretty cool tool. Our very own Tayler of DeafRead made it.

By: Michele

Michele — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:48:50 +0000

I have yet to try RWC and didn’t even know it existed until I joined SWC a few months ago. I have asked at theaters, over the years, if they had any captioned showings, but no one ever answered in the affirmative and I gave up going to movies altogether. The last movie I saw at the theater was “A Beautiful Mind” and what a different movie it was once I saw it on DVD with captioning.

Thanks to everyone for the good info on RWC!!

As for the hearing public being “…distracted by subtitles… and …more people complained about subtitles, than praised it.” I would like the movie theater owners to know that they are losing dollars from the vast population of HOH/deaf/Deaf movie goers by not making captioning readily available to those of us who need it. I never intentionally want to inconvenience anyone, but as a HOH person for most of my 49 years I contantly make concessions. I say let the hearing public get used to captioning–mainstream it. Maybe then those of us with hearing issues can be accommodated at least as much as others with different challenges. I too want that “Equal Access” that others with disabilities seem to get.

By: Katie

Katie — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 03:09:18 +0000

You had mentioned that you placed the RWC at the bottom of the movie screen. I have placed my RWC just below the screen, so that I can easily read the captioning against the dark, yet have the entire screen available to view without the captions. To date, I have only had a positive experience with the RWC – my major complaint is that ALL theaters should offer this, why they don’t is such a mystery to me. Do the theater chains think that the deaf and hard of hearing don’t enjoy movies?

By: saytheword

saytheword — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 03:08:59 +0000

Just wanted to make a correction to Bill’s trailer. One of the sites should read as follows to access it:
http://www.yourlocalcinema.com/subtitled.trailers.html

By: kim

kim — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:36:14 +0000

Jenny– You tested glasses with captions? Cool!

Kim

By: kim

kim — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:35:23 +0000

Hi Mom of Bilingual Deaf–
If I go to this theater again, I’ll try it that way. Sitting where I was I actually tried positioning the screen so I could look over the glass, but the adjustable arm was too stiff and too long. That would definitely make a difference for me if I didn’t have to look at the screen through the entire panel.

By: kim

kim — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:32:17 +0000

Bill– thanks for stopping by. I am planning to send a message to the theater, but will cut it down quite a bit.

I agree with you that most hearing people can get used to captions if they open their minds a little. My family has been watching captioned movies for years.

Thanks for the trailors.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:00:41 +0000

We may be testing captions on a pda, like this system:

http://www.personalcaptioning.com/

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:51:57 +0000

You know, I was a tester for the RWC back in the early 1990′s, and something else, and I commented that RWC was a pain, and that I liked the other one much better. My ideal is glasses with closed-captioning! Now if I could only remember what that other product was that I tested…

By: Mother of Bilingual Deaf and Hearing Children

Mother of Bilingual Deaf and Hearing Children — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:42:13 +0000

Interesting how you use RWC to see the entire screen through the panel. When you do it that way, the captions appear on (or overlaid on) the picture screen. Yes?

I use RWC panels differently. I position the panel so, in my line of sight, I see the panel and the captions just below the screen. I prefer the heightened contrast between the captions and the black background that is just below the screen. The heightened contrast makes the captions easier for me to read. This way, too, I see the screen in all its original color; not darkened by the RWC panel.

Like you, I prefer to sit near the back of the theater so the captions I see are closer to the display on the wall behind me and the captions are bigger in size when I see them reflected. I also prefer to sit with the caption display behind me, rather than to one side of the display.

When I use RWC, the reflector panel is about 18-24 inches in front of my body and about waist/chest height in my seated position (not in front of my face).