When the reviews of Toy Story 2 came out prior to Thanksgiving and it was a big hit, we knew we wanted to see it in a movie theater. We faced a choice -- we could wait until January to see it with open captions, OR we could drive an hour and a half to see it right away with rear window captioning at the General Cinema theater in Owings Mills, Maryland. Our kids were begging to see it, so despite the less than totally positive experience we had had the first time we tried rear window captioning at the Smithsonian, we opted for the long drive to Owings Mills.
This time, we applied the lessons we had learned the first time. We left home early to be sure we would get there in plenty of time to be able to ask where to obtain the rear window viewing devices, and to be sure we had enough time to adjust the devices for comfortable viewing before the movie started.
We arrived at the theater with plenty of time to spare. There was no signage announcing the availability of rear window captioning. Granted, it was the first show, a 10:30 a.m. show with few in attendance, but if there had been clearly visible notices, perhaps more deaf and hard of hearing people would have come besides the one other deaf family that showed up. A deaf or hard of hearing patron who came to the theater would have had no idea that the devices were available unless they had already gotten the word the way I did, through an e-mail newsletter. In fact, that newsletter stated that the specific times of availability were unknown and that we would have to call the theater in advance (we did).
For me, it was a smooth, enjoyable experience. Initially I had a bit of difficulty adjusting the viewing rectangle to a height where I could see the screen and captions comfortably. Once I found the right position, I was able to stay seated upright in the same position without slouching and did not have to hold the device. I could see a small reflection of the projection screen as well as the captions, but learned to ignore that and focus on the captions. My eyes quickly adjusted to reading the captions and viewing the screen at the same time (positioning of the device is key). The captions were good and clear except for a malformed letter "I" at times.
However, I can not say the same for my deaf pre-teen. He was offered the device and I explained that it would allow him to see the captions, but just like the first time he rejected it completely and refused to even try it even with my pleading. At one point he did peer curiously at the rectangle I was using. Afterwards, when I asked why he had refused to try the rear window system, he said he did not want to be bothered with looking at the rectangle and at the screen. Open captions were his preference.
The best things about rear window captioning:
- No having to wait for the open captioned print to come around to your theater. The captions are stored on the rear window caption projector.
- Instead of being limited to specific showing times, you can see a movie at any time.
An About visitor wrote:
My mother who is 87 years old and has been deaf since 9 years old had waited years for captioning to be invented into the movie theatres. (we always thought some kind of special glasses would make their way in much like yourself) ANyhow.. the day finally arrived when we could say MOM.. let's go to a CC movie on the big screen. WELL what a terrible nightmare. NO instructions of any kind around to show us how to us the "heavy thing". We take our seat. The plexiglas is big and sits high for a shrinking elderly lady. We all fought with the "heavy thing" for a good 15 minutes only to find that the movie was well underway.. It still really wasn't adjusted to a point where comfort was achieved. My mom got so fed up with saying.. I will get more out of the movie if i try to lip read them then focus on this "heavy thing". So we took the device back to the "courtesy desk at the end of the show" and will never bother trying that nightmare trip again. All the time spent to try to adjust it properly for a little old lady just isn't worth it. Let's hope they decide with the glasses. At least the older deaf would use them and the younger kids might think it's fun if they advertise properly. Or perhaps even make it a fun choice for all to wear or not.. Thanks for writing the article.. I'm showing my mom to show she was definitely not alone in her trial of the device.