After the Golden Globe nominations were announced, I was intrigued by one of the films nominated: “The King’s Speech.” I thought I’d treat my family to a captioned showing of a first run film during the holidays. So, I visited the website http://www.captionfish.com/ to see if a theater nearby had a captioned showing. Well, much to my dismay not only did I fail to find either an open or closed captioned showing, I found that the movie has not been captioned at all for theatrical release. So much for my holiday treat for the family.

Movie captioning has come a long way from the time we could only see open captioned movies at special screenings set up by deaf groups. Now there are regular open captioned showings in some theaters in the country. And in 333 first-run theaters in the US and Canada and 55 specialty theaters (IMAX, Disney attractions, national parks, etc.), you can see closed captioned movies using Rear Window Technology.

Several companies have been busy developing new ways to provide closed captions to moviegoers. Recently, HLAA was invited to attend an Emerging Technology Symposium where a group of deaf and hard of hearing advocates were able to try out four different captioning technologies. I found all the devices provided easy access to the captions: they were readable, usable, and didn’t take me long to forget they were even there. To learn more, visit the blog of Catherine McNally, who also attended that event: http://blog.keenguides.com/2010/11/17/theater-captioning-back-to-the-future

Still with the exception of Rear Window, these devices have yet to be deployed to movie theaters. With 6,039 theaters in the country with 39,028 indoor screens, there are a lot of movies we are missing out on.

Recently, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) determined it’s time to look again at the rules for captioning in movie theaters. DOJ has released Advanced Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) and is holding a series of public hearings on the movie access, as well as three other issues. http://www.ada.gov/anprm2010/anprm2010.htm

It was a cold and snowy day in December when HLAA testified before the DOJ in Washington DC regarding their ANPRM on movie captioning. Thomas E. Perez, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, Samuel R. Bagenstos Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, Mazen M. Basrawi, Counsel in the Office of the Assistant Attorney General, and John L. Wodatch, Chief of the Disability Rights Section were at the dais at the opening of the hearing. Many other DOJ staff attended the hearing as well, along with a room full of spectators. We were among the first to provide comments that day. To see HLAA’s comments, visit http://www.hearingloss.org/advocacy/regulatory.asp#moviecap

We were pleased to see other advocates provide comments as well, including TDI (Telecommunications for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing), NAD (National Association of the Deaf), AAPD (American Association of People with Disabilities), Gallaudet University, AFB (American Federation of the Blind) and approximately 40 other commenters. DOJ held a hearing early in Chicago and will hold the last hearing on January 10, 2011 in San Francisco. Visit www.ada.gov for more information about the upcoming hearing and for a transcript of hearings already held.

To provide the DOJ more input on this issue, HLAA posted an Action Alert, asking HLAA constituents to send in their comments to the DOJ on movie captioning. Many people are already busy sending in their comments to the DOJ. If you have not, and you are interested, visit our website for our sample letter and instructions on how to send your comments either via US mail or electronically. http://www.hearingloss.org/doj_moviecaptions.asp

We do see that a number of people are simply cutting and pasting our sample letter onto the comments file. We urge you to tell the DOJ your own experience in your own words instead of using our version word for word. We think it’s important for them to hear about the issue from many different perspectives.

HLAA is in the process of drafting formal comments and we plan to send those in to the DOJ before the January 24, 2011 deadline. We will post those comments to our website for you to see too.

Here's hoping the next time I want to treat my family to a movie, there will be many captioned movies showing whenever we want to see them.

Travel Tips for People with Hearing Loss from TSA

During the holiday season, many of us fly to visit family and friends or take off for a vacation. Some of us will be facing the new Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) for the first time. HLAA has been asked whether it is safe to go through AIT wearing the processor for a cochlear implant. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, Transporation Security Administration (TSA): AIT will not harm a cochlear implant’s processor.

TSA’s website provides general information about the screening process as well as information for people with disabilities. According to their website, TSA, “has established a program for screening of persons with disabilities and their associated equipment, mobility aids, and devices. Our program covers all categories of disabilities (mobility, hearing, visual, and hidden).”

To learn more about their program, visit:

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/specialneeds/index.shtm

Their tips for people for hearing loss follows:

Hearing Disabilities
Travelers with Disabilities and Medical Conditions

• If you need to communicate with the Security Officer, inform her/him of your disability and the way in which you can communicate. TSA Security Officers are trained to provide whatever assistance they can to persons with hearing disabilities.

• If the screening process is unclear to you, motion to the Security Officer that you can't hear and ask him/her to ask the Security Officer to write the information down.

• If you can read lips or are hard of hearing, ask the Security Officer to look directly at you and repeat the information slowly.

• It is not necessary to remove hearing aids or the exterior component of a cochlear implant at security checkpoints.

• It is best if you wear your hearing device while going through the metal detector.

• According to Otolaryngologist and Otolaryngology surgeons, hearing devices such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, external component of cochlear implants, and middle ear implants are not affected by X-ray inspection or walk-through metal detector screening. In addition, these devices may also safely be screened using Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT).

• If you are concerned or uncomfortable with going through the walk-thorough metal detector, or are uneasy with having your external component of your cochlear implant X-rayed, you can ask for a full body pat-down of your person and a visual and physical inspection of the exterior component while it remains on your body.

• Assistive listening devices must undergo x-ray screening.

• If you use a hearing dog, you and the dog will remain together at all times while going through the security checkpoint. See the "Service Animal" section for more tips on service animals in the screening process.

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/specialneeds/editorial_1380.shtm