Banjo's World

In a recent e-mail I received, the person mentioned that he is working with the local deaf community to organize events at the theatre. He is trying to get a V.I.P. -type program set up for the deaf and hard of hearing moviegoers so it would be easier to show open-captioned movies instead of using the RWC system. I must say he's one heck of a guy because of his dedication to providing accessibility to the deaf and blind moviegoers.

RWC stands for Rear Window Captioning. It has a bad reputation among the deaf moviegoers. I know a lot of hearing people may be surprised to hear that, but I can't say I am and I know why.

The reason why many deaf moviegoers dislike RWC system is because of how much of a hassle it is. It is a tinted plastic glass attached to a snake-like stand. It is bendable and adjustable. However, you would have to come in early to get a good seat. The best place to use it is to sit in middle of the theatre. If you sit in the back, the captions will not be able to fit in it, and if you sit at the front, the captions will be really tiny and difficult to read. If you sit to the right or left, it will be slanted. Also, it will have to sit in the cup holder next to you. So if the theatre is packed, you will have nowhere to put your cup of beverage.

Also, there are too many cases of where the neck of the snake-like stand will be unable to stay in the position you put it in because it is too worn out. So it will repeatedly bend over forcing you to readjust it. Another problem is that you have to sit very still to watch the movie with the captions reflecting off the glass. It can get quite uncomfortable after a while.

Open captioned movies is preferred by many because it's right on the screen instead of having to focus on two separate objects at once which is difficult for some because some people are unable to see both without one being out of focus. As hard as that may be to believe, but it's true. To the deaf people, it is a big pain in the neck. We do have to put up with a lot more than the hearing people ever will have to in their entire lives. The hearing people don't realize that they are really working harder to accommodate us when they could be doing much less by just offering open captioned movies.

The problem is that they are worried about how the moviegoers may react to it and how it may affect the attendance at the theatres. I can understand their argument, but have they ever tried a test run of it? Have they ever ran a month worth of nothing but open captioned movies at every showing on every screen at a few selected locations and study the impact of the experiment? I would really like to know.

In the end, they might be surprised to see how much of a difference it may make. I just hope it would be the surprise I hope for.

In fact, the person who e-mailed me is hearing and his whole family is hearing. His children watch movies with captions turned on all of the times. Just to show you that there are hearing people out there who do watch movies with captions or subtitles turned on. In fact, he is not the only one. I know several people including movie reviewers who watch movies with captions on and they are all hearing.

If they can do that, why can't everybody else? A few people will try to fuss over it but many will probably become accustomed to it. In United Kingdom, they show some TV shows with an interpreter in the corner. Myself, I don't like seeing an interpreter on the screen; I prefer captions since it's less distracting. Different strokes for everyone. But they do it anyway. How do we know how everybody will like it or hate it if we don't give it a shot?

I am not advocating that every single screen should be open-captioned. I am only saying that they should do a test run of it at selected theatres across the country where every movie shown on every screen is open captioned at every showing for a month or more. It should be a good way to study the impact it makes on the audience and how it affects the attendance at these selected theatres. I just wanted to re-clarify what I said earlier and hope people won't take it the wrong way.

If the audience reacts quite positively to the open-captioned movies, then I would say open-captioned movies are far, far more economic compared to using expensive technologies like the RWC system.