Rebecca A Withey: The advancement of captions and a disappointing cinema trip!

Over the summer I’ve been enjoying a series of interesting programmes by BSL Zone called Deaf Rewind. Each programme focuses on a different topic such as deaf rights, communication and technology. With archived videos of important milestones for the deaf community, I found this series to be incredibly informative and insightful to watch.

One of my favourites was the episode which looked at how the deaf community has worked to ensure technology is accessible. It gave examples of how technology has progressed to be more inclusive of deaf people and also showed us the barriers that the deaf community have faced when petitioning or carrying out marches for more equal access.

Back when I was at primary school, closed captions were around but they weren’t common place. If you went to the video shop to hire a film, for example, you had to check the VHS case had the “CC” logo on it to ensure it had captions, and these weren’t available on every movie you wanted to hire.

I remember watching educational videos with my class at school – none of which were captioned – and having the class teacher feedback briefly to me what had happened in the programme. Most of the time when watching these things, I just daydreamed.

Similarly, every cinema trip in my childhood was always to see a non captioned film. The highlight of the trip, for me, was getting to go someplace new with my friends and devour the hot sweet popcorn and a fizzy drink before the trailers had even ended. I had no idea what was happening throughout the movie. But I wasn’t too fussed, because I didn’t know any different!

Nowadays, that wouldn’t be acceptable.

Through the BSL Zone programme on Technology, I was humbled to see the deaf pioneers who have been fighting tirelessly behind the scenes for these captions which I so rely on. Even now, in 2021, there are deaf individuals, groups and charities still working to ensure deaf people can access mainstream media.

I was reminded of the need for this work when I took my children on a cinema trip during the last week of the summer holidays. We’d booked tickets to see a captioned showing of Paw Patrol (their choice, not mine ha!) and we rocked up nice and early to purchase our snacks and get comfy in the reclining chairs before the movie started.

My children can both follow a movie without captions so the whole point of attending that particular showing was so that I could follow what was going on. Anyhow, we sat through 20 minutes of trailers and with excitement, settled down as the film commenced.

Around 30 seconds into the film, I began to feel tense. There were sounds of some sort happening, but no closed captions were visible. Oh man. Now I felt uncomfortable. Then a character appeared on screen, grabbed a microphone and started talking. No captions. *eye roll*

Immediately I left the theatre and went up to an usher who was in the foyer. I explained that the film was advertised as being captioned but no captions were visible. She decided to go and have a look and then after seeing the absence for herself, called her manager over the walkie talkie.

15 minutes passed. “She’s coming soon!” The usher kept reminding me. Finally the manager turned up and went inside some sort of cupboard where I assume they managed the captions from. She called me over and said “So sorry! We are putting them on now!”before she disappeared inside.

I made my way back to my seat and suddenly the film stopped and the lights came on again. Oh, crikey. They were restarting the film for me! Feeling a mixture of gratitude and awkwardness, I slipped down into my seat and waited for the film to restart.

As the lights dimmed and the movie began once more, I heard the sounds again – no captions. Then the character appeared and spoke. Still. No. Captions. Huh?!

Turning around I noticed the usher scanning the room, and once she saw me she hurried over. She knelt beside me and gestured clearly “Sorry! The subtitles are not working today!”

All that palaver for nothing! Grateful that they agreed to refund our tickets at least, I still felt dissatisfied by their explanation that the projector for the captions simply “wasn’t working.” They offered me free tickets to return to see another show, but I turned them down.

This has happened way too many times now.

I have, of course, made a formal complaint to Odeon cinemas online. But it seems that other than offer a refund there isn’t much they can do to restore my confidence in their captioning service. No wonder streaming films from home is so much more convenient for deaf and hard of hearing viewers.

I do wonder how technology will continue to advance and support the needs of the deaf community, especially when it comes to accessing mainstream media. Will the cinema experience improve or will it be predominantly at home viewing in years to come?

We shall see.

For more info on the Deaf Rewind series, look here: https://www.bslzone.co.uk/watch/deaf-rewind/deaf-rewind-3-communication

Rebecca Anne Withey is a freelance writer with a background in Performing Arts & Holistic health. She is also profoundly deaf, a sign language user and pretty great lipreader. www.rawithey.com https://www.facebook.com/Rebecca-A-Withey-198730846959276