Captioning update: I am pleased to share this response from James Sandberg, Director of Operations of Coming Attractions Theatres with you and my return reply regarding captioning at our local Poney Village Cinemas. His response is below my reply.
Good morning, James,
Thank you for your informative reply. We are pleased to know you are looking into options regarding captioning access for deaf and hard of hearing audience members.
There are some things we would suggest to consider while you weigh all your options.
One of the things your web designer can do now is add an "Accessibility" link on your front page with the information you shared regarding notifying the theater a couple of days in advance requesting Open Captions. This lets people know that you are accommodating and what they need to do. I couldn't find any such link when I looked up your website to contact you. I also looked under the FAQ link. This would be another good place to mention what is available.
Please note that "advance notice" is not true "equal communication access" since the "hearing" customer does not have to use advance notice.
The Sony Captioning glasses are wonderful for most adults who use them, but not reasonable for young Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children. The glasses are heavy, bulky and uncomfortable for them. With busy schedules of families today, it is also hard for most to plan 1 or 2 days in advance which movie and time they would be able to attend. Again, keep in mind that advance notice is not true "equal communication access" since the "hearing" customer does not have to use advance notice.
The glasses can be very expensive and children aren't always delicate with technology. The result could be broken pieces or loose wiring if the child has to keep adjusting these to fit on their small heads. These devices are reportedly broken so many times by many users across the USA that it becomes a frustrating experience for the theater as well as the customer. It then becomes yet another added expense to the theater.
For these reasons, having Open Captioning for all children and family movies turned on all the time would be an optimum choice for those showings.
While I was living on the East Coast, a group of people with hearing loss attended a theater that had the Sony glasses, but they did not have enough glasses for everyone attending.
With the ordinance now in Portland, Oregon mandating all public places in the city to have captions turned on for every television, as well as the recent mandate in the state of Hawaii for ALL theaters to have Open Captions turned on, why not consider turning captions on for all viewing audiences all the time in all of your theaters and move progressively into the future and direction captioning advocates are headed for inclusion and access? Coming Attraction Theaters can follow the example of Hawaii and be ahead of all the other theaters in your territory. If offered a choice where there are captioning glasses, or open captioned movies available at all times, Millions of Deaf and Hard of Hearing people and their families will go where access and inclusion are most easily and readily available. This would be a nice boon to your revenue.
In addition, keep in mind that OC (Open Caption) does not require any additional investment on your part.
Kindest regards,
Joyce Edmistion,
P.S. Copy to CCACaptioning.org, a non-profit all volunteer advocacy and education organization with whom you may wish to confer.
On Feb 9, 2016, at 3:38 PM, Coming Attractions Theatres Support <jamess@catheatres.com> wrote:
Good Afternoon Joyce,
Thank you for reaching out to us regarding the availability of closed captioning at our Pony Village location. Currently, we as a company are in the process of evaluating the available options with regards to closed captioning systems (where the subtitles are viewed by a single viewer via glasses or small LED display). Given the substantial financial investment required on the part of our company, we have been speaking with several manufacturers as well as well as our theatre equipment supplier to find the best solution available to us. We have even gone as far as testing a couple of the different systems at our Eureka, CA location. We really do hope to have a decision soon.
That being said, in the mean time we do have the capability play films with open captioning (where the subtitles are projected on the screen and visible to the entire audience) on any film that was released with them (most are nowadays). We only ask that you reach out to us 1-2 days before you plan on attending a film so that we can test and confirm that there are no issues with the playback. At that time, we also coordinate a time that is mutually beneficial for everyone for you to come in and watch the film so that we can inform the rest of the audience that there will be subtitles.
Please feel free to email the theatre at pony@catheatres.com if you are interested in an open captioned show time of a specific film. I have copied the theatre on this email so that they know to expect an email from you.
Thank you again for reaching out and I hope we will have the opportunity to see you at the movies again soon.
Regards,James Sandberg
Director of Operations
Coming Attractions Theatres
2200 Ashland St
Ashland , OR 97520
(541)488-1021
jamess@catheatres.com
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