Sen. Ray Jones pre-filed a bill today to put the Commission on Human Rights in charge of making movie theater owners install closed captioning systems in their theaters.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
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5 comments:
This is a good bill. There are over 647,000 deaf or hard of hearing people in the state of Kentucky, and as an "aging" state, this number will only grow. I'm a proud Republican, but I support this bill.
If there is that much demand for this technology, then it would clearly behoove theater owners to find and acquire closed captioning equipment. How do we justify requiring it by law and getting the Commission on Human Rights involved?
If you read the ADA, it clearly mentions captioned movies in theaters, yet does not require them. That was because, at the time, and since then, the lobby has been very vocal against it.
There is a demand for it, too often it is overlooked. The deaf and hard of hearing generally have been turned down at most attempts to require this. It is about doing what is right. Deaf and hard of hearing people should be given the same considerations as the wheelchair-bound, etc. when it comes to having access.
Involving the Commission on Human Rights is only proper due to the fact that they normally mediate discrimination or civil rights cases. If you would just google captioned movies, you would see plenty of times where the deaf and hard of hearing have tried to get this access, but have been turned down by the courts, who have legislated the hell out of the ADA and it's original intent.
I'm going out on a limb here, but I will be happy to post my own personal blogsite here for you to visit so you can read about my attempts to work with a movie theater owner to get captioned movies, among other issues affecting the deaf. Lastly, to clarify, it is no closed captioning, it is open caption, there is a difference.
Closed caption is what you see on a TV screen, for example, and usually involved the dialogue being burned into the movie, which is generally more expensive and can not be "turned off". In Open caption, the option is there to run the captioning (dialogue) only for certain showings, movies, etc. so it would not be seen EVERY time a movie runs at a theater. Typically, theaters that do offer this have showings of captioned movies on specific dates or times, and usually only on one screen of their theater.
My blog site is http://thumpaflash.livejournal.com
But the deaf person may be Russian, so obviously we need to require Russian translation too. Don't forget Japanese and French and Spanish. Probably should provide a braile booklet to each movie too. Bed pans should be provided for the bladder challenged too. Not fair that they have to go to the lobby to use the bathroom. Better stop selling peanut M&M's for the peanut allergics as well. It's their right to go to any movie theater they want!
Fine, be a smart ass. Just stop and think for a second, they show some movies with Spanish subtitles now....I'm not saying they should do that with all movies, and I understand that equal access does not mean equal enjoyment, but if they require that TV shows be captioned now, what is so wrong with a deaf person who never gets to go to the movies with their hearing family, finally being able to do so instead of waiting 4-6 months or longer for a movie to be released on DVD?
Would it not be beneficial to businesses in Kentucky to consider there are 647,000 deaf or hard of hearing people in the state and realize "Oh! potential customers to help my business if I spend a little money to make more money".
Obviously we can not legislate every single contigency, but this is the right thing to do. Guaranteed, you know someone or are related to someone who has a hearing loss of some degree.
Many times the deaf do no vocalize their needs because they have been turned down so often, they don't think they can get what they need or want. Did you know, there is only approximately 1 sign language interpreter for every 6,000 deaf or hard of hearing? What about the deaf kids in college who want to learn and better themselves? Same principle applies here.
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