Movie captions for the hearing-impaired

Movie captions for the hearing-impaired

March 26, 2007 - Taking in a movie these days is as much a feast for the ears as it is for the eyes. They even pass out Oscars for the best movie sound and music. That doesn't resound much with America's deaf or hard-of-hearing. Gary Nurenberg from CNN reports on how a little high-tech tweak lets millions of people enjoy a night out at the movies.

Rosaline Hayes-Crawford from the National Association for the Deaf says, "People who are deaf and hard of hearing have been left out of going to the movies, wonderful American cultural experience, because they don't have access to the sound track."

Activists think the answer is open captioning, words on the screen.

Less than one percent of all movies being displayed today are actually displayed with captions.

Film Producer Pliny Porter says, "It is a real issue because it is a visual medium, first and foremost for those who are not impaired and are seeing the actual lettering on the image, so you really have a split audience with different needs."

Ben Averch from Microvision, Inc., says, "Our product is a see-through, wearable display that superimposes digital information on your field of view."

The industry is experimenting with alternatives that let individual moviegoers to see captions while the general audience doesn't. These glasses allow viewers to read text on a green screen below the main screen.

Roger Hibbard from Ultra Stereo Labs says, "The glasses run about 19 cents and the projector puts the text on the screen is essentially a slide projector."

Washington lawyer John Stanton sued theaters to force better accommodations for the deaf. He now uses a device, offered by some theaters, called Rear Window.

"They simply put it in the cup holder and they adjust the reflective device to find the rear window screen at the back of the theater."

Although Stanton says the deaf community prefers open captioning, "I prefer to go, take the technology we have right now to go enjoy the movie, rather than hope the movie theaters or the general public becomes more accepting of open captioning."

Regal Theaters, which offer open captioning, recently invited the deaf community to sample alternatives.

Randy Smith from Regal Theaters says, "Maybe develop a system that is more user-friendly, which will enable theaters to then have captioning at every show time."

Just what deaf moviegoers want to see.