Caption Glasses and the ADA

[rolanni]

So, last week, I was introduced to the notion of "caption glasses," as an assistive technology to help deaf and hard-of-hearing folk to enjoy movies for their dialogue and not just for the pretty pictures.  And I called the Flagship Cinemas in Waterville to ask if they had "caption glasses," and the reply came back in the negative.

Now, I currently have Book Brain (manuscript due in oh, right close to 30 days), so I don't have a lot of Think Power left over to consider Real Life, but it did occur to me sometime yesterday that, doggone it, hasn't the ADA* had some kind of input here?  I mean, considering the sheer number of people who are deaf or heard-of-hearing?**

I shelved that thought for Life After Book, but Irene Harrison was busy doing the legwork on a parallel track.  She provided the information that the ADA required theaters with more than 50 seats to have assistive technology available, and that the government would give those theaters that installed this technology support in the form of a tax break.

Steve followed up on this for me, and came up with the Hearing Loss Association of America website (here's the link), on which we find the following (note the date):

Dec 6 2016

On June 10, 2010 the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM), “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations – Movie Theaters; Movie Captioning and Audio Description.” Six-and-a-half-years later, the DOJ has issued a Final Rule on the ANPRM.

In their Final Rule, the DOJ requires movie theaters to:

• have and maintain the equipment necessary to provide closed movie captioning and audio description at a movie patron’s seat whenever showing a digital movie produced, distributed, or otherwise made available


• provide notice to the public about the availability of these features, including on communications and advertisements at the box office, and other ticketing locations, on websites, mobile apps newspapers and via telephone. Third party websites are not required to provide that information.


• ensure that theater staff is available to assist patrons with the equipment before, during, and after the showing of a movie with these features.

Full article here.

So, what it looks like is that, for 6.5 years, the assistive technology rule has more or less been a guideline, and now, it is law.

In the meantime, just for fun, I have written to Flagship Cinema Corporate (owner-operators of theaters in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Florida), inquiring into the existence of assistive hearing devices in their Waterville location, and seeking guidance on how to ask for this device at the ticket counter.

So, that.

Back to work.

__________________
*ADA = Americans with Disabilities Act

**Actually, there is a Societal Thing where we pretend that being deaf or hard-of-hearing isn't really a disability.  Insurance companies routinely pretend that hearing aids are some sort of luxury item, which you may buy out of your funds, or do without; and my insurance carrier, at least, has stopped covering hearing tests.  Of course, my insurance carrier has stopped covering treatment for depression, but only for women. Because, my ghod! If we covered all the depressed women or hearing impaired people in the world, the stockholders wouldn't get their profit.  But I digress.

Comments

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

As noted earlier, I have never seen caption glasses. What we have here is a different device. So in raising the Powers to get assistive tech to Waterville, you may want to be more general in your terminology. Ask for Closed Captioning. That gives them more options as to what they come up with for solutions.

Here's what we have: https://www.google.com/search?q=movie+closed+captioning+device&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj3mbOA2oPRAhVCy2MKHZNwC9IQ_AUICCgB&biw=852&bih=468#imgrc=AwqWsUDDGRTNbM%3A

I will try to remember to ask my brother in Carmel if there are theaters in the general area that accommodate hearing issues. He's Deaf and has had a decent amount to do with administering the ADA in Maine. Is teaching ASL classes at the U down in Portland this year. He's my go-to guy for what's new, current, and pending in the field.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Yes, I heard you say that. Or read you say that. Or whatever.

I stuck to "assistive hearing devices," and asked them to tell me if (1) such devices were in fact available to viewers at the Waterville cinemas, and (2) if such devices were indeed available, what should I ask for at the ticket counter so that there would be no unfortunate misunderstandings.

As I mentioned earlier, the Regal Cinemas in Augusta have recently installed "caption glasses," which are apparently some hot new thing developed by Sony Entertainment, in their theaters. I'd really rather not drive 50 miles to see a movie, if I can get something helpful in the immediate neighborhood. Given what I've read about the Sony glasses, I'd rather the LED caption thingy. Seems the Sony glasses put the caption Right In Front of You, no matter where you look, which means that you have to choose whether you want to see the movie, or read the caption.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

I like the Wall-E thingy. Nobody else can see your captions, or even realize you have them unless they're directly behind you. And you get the option of not having them glaring in your eyeballs.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen caption glasses out here yet, but y'never know, it may be just a matter of time. Our theaters have devices like the one you linked. They work pretty well, except when the theater personnel messes up setting up the broadcast in some way.

Glad to Help: Hearing

[ireneha.livejournal.com]

I was glad to do a bit of searching for Hearing Assistance.
I also talked it up with one of my friends, who, I think, is hearing impaired (but has a totally invisible aide). He reports that his church has headsets, and a couple of small theaters in my area.

The Americans with Disabilities Act - has the theater providing 'some' assistance - but not necessarily those nifty caption devices.

Another web site said that hearing impaired people should not HAVE to ask for a device, nor be holding/wearing/showing anything that would make them look different..but the whole room should be wired to allow their own hearing device (probably hidden) to pick up the electronic signals.

I am slowly becoming my mother. I hate it. BUT..
I finally picked up a "Hearing Impaired" button at WorldCon several years back. What the button did was display that I had 'admitted to' hearing problems, and gave me a front row seat in discussion rooms.