Miss-Delectable
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News for Austin, Texas | kvue.com | Local News
Sisters Emma and Abby Crawford love to do things together. But when they watch movies, it's as if they're in separate worlds.
Abby, 8, can hear, but Emma, 10, was born deaf, and relies on subtitles to understand what's going on.
Emma rarely goes to a theater and, instead, waits for releases to come out on DVDs so she can read the captions.
"I feel it's not fair about hearing people.... They get to go whenever they want, whatever time they want," Emma says.
There's a simple solution: putting captions such as these on all screens at all theaters.
"That would be so exciting!" Emma says. "I could watch it whatever time I wanted to."
Abby likes the idea too.
"I like it because I want my sister to be happy so she can actually know what they're saying," she says.
But theater owners say it's not that easy. They're in a business, trying to turn a profit. They say having open captioning on all movies might drive some hearing patrons away, but not having it at all makes it almost impossible for the deaf to enjoy a night at the movies.
"We feel discriminated against because we are not able to participate in things other people enjoy," says Patti Singleton, a professor at Austin Community College who is also deaf.
"We really want all the movies to be captioned so that we can have the choice of when we want to go... the same access that non-deaf people have," says Don Miller, a ACC teacher who is deaf.
But many hearing movie goers don't want to "read" a movie. They say captions on every movie would be annoying and distracting.
Even Abby says captioning can be a nuisance.
"Sometimes I don't like it because it kind of hides the parts, some of the picture because sometimes it's right in the middle," she says.
Now, only a handful of first-run movies are offered with captions.
This week, for instance, only one captioned movie is being shown in Austin, and the captions are only on a few select showings.
"Should I accept that? No, I don't like that," says Garrett Scott, who is deaf. "I shouldn't be tolerant of that. I need to know exactly what the dialogue is, exactly what the movie is talking about."
To many in the deaf community, it's not just an issue of convenience. It's an issue of fairness.
"I don't want to wait two to three months until it gets on in DVD," says Kristin Granitz, who is deaf. "I want to see it now. I want to go to the theater like everybody else. It isn't fair."
Many deaf people argue that theaters make accommodations for some people with disabilities, such as those in wheelchairs. They contend that hearing theater-goers would become used to captions, such as those used in foreign language films, and that whatever inconvenience they caused would be worth the benefit of opening up movies to deaf people.
"Without the captioning I'm just watching the action I don't have any idea what they're saying," says Joe Conard, who is deaf.
Sisters Emma and Abby Crawford love to do things together. But when they watch movies, it's as if they're in separate worlds.
Abby, 8, can hear, but Emma, 10, was born deaf, and relies on subtitles to understand what's going on.
Emma rarely goes to a theater and, instead, waits for releases to come out on DVDs so she can read the captions.
"I feel it's not fair about hearing people.... They get to go whenever they want, whatever time they want," Emma says.
There's a simple solution: putting captions such as these on all screens at all theaters.
"That would be so exciting!" Emma says. "I could watch it whatever time I wanted to."
Abby likes the idea too.
"I like it because I want my sister to be happy so she can actually know what they're saying," she says.
But theater owners say it's not that easy. They're in a business, trying to turn a profit. They say having open captioning on all movies might drive some hearing patrons away, but not having it at all makes it almost impossible for the deaf to enjoy a night at the movies.
"We feel discriminated against because we are not able to participate in things other people enjoy," says Patti Singleton, a professor at Austin Community College who is also deaf.
"We really want all the movies to be captioned so that we can have the choice of when we want to go... the same access that non-deaf people have," says Don Miller, a ACC teacher who is deaf.
But many hearing movie goers don't want to "read" a movie. They say captions on every movie would be annoying and distracting.
Even Abby says captioning can be a nuisance.
"Sometimes I don't like it because it kind of hides the parts, some of the picture because sometimes it's right in the middle," she says.
Now, only a handful of first-run movies are offered with captions.
This week, for instance, only one captioned movie is being shown in Austin, and the captions are only on a few select showings.
"Should I accept that? No, I don't like that," says Garrett Scott, who is deaf. "I shouldn't be tolerant of that. I need to know exactly what the dialogue is, exactly what the movie is talking about."
To many in the deaf community, it's not just an issue of convenience. It's an issue of fairness.
"I don't want to wait two to three months until it gets on in DVD," says Kristin Granitz, who is deaf. "I want to see it now. I want to go to the theater like everybody else. It isn't fair."
Many deaf people argue that theaters make accommodations for some people with disabilities, such as those in wheelchairs. They contend that hearing theater-goers would become used to captions, such as those used in foreign language films, and that whatever inconvenience they caused would be worth the benefit of opening up movies to deaf people.
"Without the captioning I'm just watching the action I don't have any idea what they're saying," says Joe Conard, who is deaf.
