Picture from Nyle DiMarco’s Twitter page, calling out theaters for their lack of access for the deaf.
Nyle DiMarco took to Twitter to complain about the CaptionView devices in theaters, specifically AMC. On Sunday he posted this picture (left), saying “RT (retweet) if you prefer Open Captions instead of this.” Open Captions are captions that are displayed on the movie screen, just like a DVD would, and are widely accepted to be the only way to ensure completely accurate captions. Movie theaters tend to avoid Open Caption screening due to complaints from hearing movie-goers (i.e. “The captions are in the way of my movie!”) and instead use one of two options: A CaptionView stick (pictured right) or glasses that provide private captions.
When we look at the success rate of CaptionView and similar devices we notice a trend: They suck. Thousands of tweets flooded Twitter speaking out against these “assistive” devices. Complaints include devices not being charged when requested, devices not connecting to the movies, missing/censoring words and dialogue, and not being fully refunded when the devices fail! When CaptionView doesn’t work out for deaf moviegoers, they are given free tickets to try again later without any guarantee that they will be working when they come back. Nyle later posted his anger for this policy as well- posting a picture of his new tickets, since AMC refused to refund him.
All movie theaters are required by law under the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide a working and readily available option for the deaf to see movies. AMC has been notorious about having failed devices and giving out free tickets. Do you think that Open Captions should become widely acceptable, or should the CaptionView get an update?