One in four cinemas failed to show a single subtitled screening during Deaf Awareness Week promotion

A quarter of UK cinemas didn’t put on any subtitled screenings during last week’s Deaf Awareness Week, despite the UK Cinema Association (UKCA) promising an increase in the accessible showings for one week only.

In what was slammed as a “publicity-seeking gimmick” by the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS), the industry body said leading companies such as Vue, Cineworld and Odeon would “show their support for people with hearing loss” with the move.

Phil Clapp, the UKCA’s chief executive, said of the promotion: “We want to make sure that everyone can enjoy the big screen experience and hope that by promoting subtitled films and raising awareness in cinemas during National Deaf Awareness week, we will encourage not only those hard of hearing customers, but also general audiences to experience subtitled films in the cinema.”

While the number of subtitled screenings did increase to 3,428 for Deaf Awareness Week compared to 1,820 from the week before, the number spans 30 different films, meaning there was an average of just 114 showings per movie across more than 880 cinemas in the UK.

It means deaf cinemagoers had a one in eight chance that their local cinema would be one screening their chosen film with subtitles last week.

#DeafAwarenessWeek is about celebrating deaf people and highlighting the issues they face. It's not an opportunity for large cinema chains to pay lip service to accessibility with publicity-seeking gimmicks.

Real equality is permanent, not temporary. https://t.co/rQt4r3AQnf

— NDCS (@NDCS_UK) May 2, 2022

 

Of these 3,428 showings, only 3% (110) were screened at the ‘peak’ times of Friday and Saturday after 6pm.

The figures from the subtitled screenings site YourLocalCinema.com also revealed that 246 out of 881 UK cinemas (28%) chose not to put on any subtitled showings at all during Deaf Awareness Week.

Jo Campion, deputy director at NDCS, said: “Even when the announcement was made, it was difficult to get excited because there were no firm promises or figures. Now we know exactly why.

“Until deaf people can see any film, at any time during any week of the year with subtitles, they will remain trapped in the Great Cinematic Lottery and true equality will be a long way away.

“However, a substantial, permanent increase in subtitles would at least make a difference. So which cinema is going to be the first to put its hand up, turn on the subtitles and welcome deaf cinemagoers through its doors?”

The UKCA declined to comment on the statistics.

Many @Cinema_UK members will this week be increasing the number of subtitled (open captioned or ‘OC’) screenings to support National Deaf Awareness Week and to encourage both hard of hearing customers and general audiences to experience subtitled films on the big screen. pic.twitter.com/xHOL3hVxd2

— Cinema UK (@Cinema_UK) May 2, 2022

The data also comes a week after it was confirmed the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID) had withdrawn from the UKCA’s Subtitling Challenge Fund due to “little progress” in the area since 2019.

The deaf charity partnered with the industry body a year earlier to “stimulate new innovations in the delivery of subtitling” for deaf cinemagoers, but the last public update on the project came in May 2019.

In a statement to The Limping Chicken last week, Teri Devine of RNID said: “RNID has engaged with the UKCA over a number of years to try and improve accessibility in cinemas including testing tech solutions such as smart glasses with people who are deaf and have hearing loss.

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen little progress in this area over the last three years. We have therefore decided to primarily focus on improving accessibility by encouraging cinemas to show more captioned screenings, which is something that can happen now.”

Explaining the three-year wait for an update, Mr Clapp told this website the coronavirus pandemic had “hit our members and partners in a variety of different ways”, with cinema closures affecting their ability to “follow-up on the trials” of the subtitles glasses which were carried out at the BFI in London in early 2020.

“More importantly, it also saw the team responsible for developing the [glasses] technology leave the National Theatre. As a result, it has taken us some time to pick up the pieces and only in recent months – where that team has re-established itself as the stand-alone company ‘Built for Good’ (BfG) – have we once again been in a position to hold meaningful discussions.

“The RNID have taken the decision not to offer renewed support for the panel and to instead focus their efforts on pushing for more open caption screening – something we’ve never seen as an either/or,” he said.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is an award-winning Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.

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Update – 13:15: In a statement sent to The Limping Chicken commenting on the statistics, Teri Devine of RNID added: “RNID shares The National Deaf Children’s Society’s disappointment in the lack of effort that UK cinemas showed to mark Deaf Awareness Week. We strongly believe that the best way to improve access to cinemas for deaf people and people with hearing loss now is to permanently increase the provision of subtitled screenings.

“The UK Cinema Association’s (UKCA) misrepresentation of the availability of subtitled films last week left deaf cinema goers disappointed, confused and angry. Deaf people and people with hearing loss deserve to be able to access cinemas in the same way that hearing people can – in their area at a time that suits them.”