By: Kara Nelson

Going to the movie theater is a luxury many of us enjoy. It is one of the few places of entertainment that is available for people of all ages, genders and interests. People are able to go to the movies and laugh, cry, scream and even learn! It appears to be an ideal place to many, but not for the deaf community. Many movie theaters are actively discriminating against them by not making the proper accommodations for deaf and hard of hearing people to comfortably watch a movie.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law that was put into place in 1990. It prohibited discrimination in all public areas against anyone with a disability. The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) added Title III to the ADA early 2017, with the Final Rule. The Final Rule requires movie theaters that have been providing digital showings of movies since December 2, 2016, to offer the proper captioning equipment by June 2, 2018. Any theater that started streaming digital has until December 2, 2018.

The Final Rule also requires that theaters are to notify their customers that the captioning devices are available and the staff is available for set-up assistance. The number of devices required are dependent on the number of auditoriums the theater has.

As of today, there are a couple of ways for those belonging to the deaf community to watch movies at theaters. For starters, there is closed captioning, which is an on-screen text that identifies each character and displays the dialogue and sound effects of the movie.

Then there are captioning devices called CaptiView. These are captioning screens that are attached to a flexible arm and It clips onto the back of the chair in front of you. Once secured and turned, the device displays the captions on the transparent CaptiView screen.

Last, there are Sony Entertainment Access Glasses. These glasses are to be worn on the face and the theater transmits the captions to the glasses’ receiver. The moviegoers are then able to see the captions through the lens over the film while it is playing on the screen.

These are definitely steps of progress towards equality, but unfortunately there are still issues in theaters accommodating to the deaf community. Even with the captioning technology, the movie theaters still do not offer a comfortable environment for deaf and hard of hearing people.

Kelsey Mitchell is a 23-year-old deaf woman who lives in Sandy Springs, Georgia. Mitchell typically watches movies on Netflix or waits until her TV provider puts it On Demand. She doesn’t go to the movies anymore because she signs, “It’s disappointing and a waste of time.”

She signs about her past experiences going out to the movies and using all three of the captioning methods.

Mitchell explains how the CaptiView screen was distracting from the movie, because she had to read the caption on the mini screen in front of her, while applying it to the movie screen.

Mitchell also signs, “The captions were delayed, too! I could read the characters’ mouths and notice that the dialogue had already passed.”

She signs that her experience with the Sony Entertainment Access Glasses was about a year ago, and it was even worse. “The first issue that arose was that I wear glasses. It was very uncomfortable to wear another pair of glasses on top of the ones I already had on.” She goes on to express that the captioning glasses continued to shut off, due to the batteries dying.

Mitchell’s most recent attempt at catching a movie in the theaters was earlier this year, for the showing of “Black Panther”. Fed up with the technology issues, she decided to call around different theaters and find out the show times with closed captioning.

“First of all, not every place offered closed captioning. The AMC Southlake Theater offered it, but it was only one captioned show time for the entire week! It was Saturday when me and my friends wanted to see it, and the closed captioned show time was for Wednesday.”

When asked about this incident, the theater’s statement was, “Many of the moviegoers complain about the closed captions on the screen. We try to accommodate all of our patrons by the majority.”

The issues Mitchell and other deaf and hard of hearing people experience are because of the versions of the devices that are being used. Theaters are purchasing the outdated versions of these captioning devices to satisfy the order of the DOJ, not their customers with disabilities. The accommodation issues are also coming from theaters simply neglecting those with disabilities. Despite the Final Rule, there are still movie theaters that are operating without caption devices, and many of those who do offer it are not making them accessible for use.