Closed Captioning at the Movies

A few months ago, I wrote about closed captioning.  In that article, I mentioned that I don’t like to go to the movies because of the options available for hard of hearing people aren’t very good.  In my experience, the movies which had closed captioning on the screen weren’t played with any regularity or at very convenient times to make that a viable option.  Also, the closed caption devices which displayed the dialogue on the screen through a device which is held only by the person that needs it were not very good at keeping in place with the dialogue.  For example, the captioning would either be a few seconds ahead or behind of the actual dialogue playing in the movie, which is incredibly difficult to deal with.  Because of this experience, I have avoided going to movies and have opted to skip seeing the movies in the theater and to wait for them to come out on DVD or streaming service, which have closed captioning.

Well, this spring and summer have a massive lineup of new releases which I would love to see on the big screen. I decided to test the closed captioning devices out on two movies this weekend and I’m thrilled to report that in both cases the closed captioning devices work without a glitch and now I’m to see all the movies I’m anxious to see on the big screen!

I began by asking the ticket counter where to get a device which in both cases was the ticket counter.  They asked me which theater I was going to be in so that they could give me the right device.  The devices they gave me have a screen attached via a long, flexible arm to a piece that fits securely into a cup holder.  I had to apply a little effort to get the device into the cup holder, but it didn’t budge for the rest of the movie.  I then positioned the captioning screen so that it was just below the bottom of the movie screen in my field of vision.

I will admit that it did take a while to get used to moving my eyes from the movie screen down to the captioning screen, but the movies I saw contained dialogue from people with strong accents which I’m certain I would not have heard or understood if I hadn’t had the captioning device.  Using the device was well worth the adjustment and greatly outweighed any inconvenience.

I give many kudos to the companies that have made this captioning device functional and simple to use. I was also incredibly impressed with the staff at the theaters who made sure that I was familiar with the devices and had employees test a device when the movies started to ensure that they were working properly. That’s incredible attention to detail! These devices will greatly enhance my movie-going experiences and I no longer must wait for movies to come out for home use to be able to see them!

Until next time, please keep in mind that if you need hearing aids and don't wear them, you should!  If you know someone who needs them and doesn't, do them a favor and talk to them.  If you need to, send them to this site.  It's ok to wear hearing aids, there are lots of us who do!