RNID cuts ties with UK Cinema Association over ‘shallow and tokenistic’ work on subtitled cinema

The Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID) has announced it will no longer work with the UK Cinema Association (UKCA) until it shows it is “serious about improving accessibility” and “prepared to engage meaningfully” with the charity.

The latest escalation comes after it was revealed earlier this month that the RNID had pulled out of the UKCA’s Subtitling Technology Challenge due to a “lack of forward movement” with the project.

In an open letter published on Thursday, the charity’s associate director for inclusion Teri Devine wrote: “I’m writing to let you know that, given the lack of meaningful progress in our work together, we have decided that we will no longer be an active part of your work on accessible cinemas.

“As an organisation, we are disappointed with the lack of engagement with us over the last three years, and the lack of real action taken to make cinemas accessible for people with hearing loss.

“At times, commitment to this work has felt shallow and tokenistic, and we believe we can make more progress for our communities by working directly with cinemas.”

Ms Devine went on to cite the industry body’s announcement during Deaf Awareness Week – where it was confirmed cinemas would increase the number of subtitled screenings for one week only – as “one example of that tokenistic approach”.

“The negative response from our partners and communities to this activity is not a surprise, and I sincerely hope that the UKCA are listening and will take note of the reaction,” she said.

Addressing its decision to withdraw from the Tech Challenge, the charity said: “Even under the new timeline of delivery […] deaf people and people with hearing loss will not be able to benefit from this new technology in the short term and the barriers to accessing cinemas will remain.

“The lack of forward movement within this group led us, as you know, to withdraw our participation in it back in January, as we believe focusing efforts on increasing and promoting subtitled screenings will have a greater impact for our communities.”

While the RNID confirmed they would disengage from the UKCA on their access work, the organisation concluded by saying their door “is open to any cinemas looking to make screenings accessible”.

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 – 21/05/22: In a statement issued to The Limping Chicken on Saturday, UKCA Chief Executive Phil Clapp said: “We were made aware by RNID of the letter late last week and had already responded to some of the points made when they published yesterday.

While we understand RNID’s disappointment at what they see as the lack of progress made in recent years in meeting the needs of deaf and hard of hearing customers, we cannot think that withdrawing co-operation with this Association is the best way to improve that situation.

The RNID letter completely overlooks the impact of the pandemic on UK cinemas, which saw the sector as a whole take a financial hit of some £2 billion and where the focus for much of that time and the months since has been on survival.

We would refute the notion that even during that period though there was any lack of engagement by this Association with RNID.

Mr Clapp went on to add that the UKCA could “point to a wide range of contacts” with the charity – both through its Disability Working Group and “directly on relevant matters” such as the Technology Challenge Fund and “general issues around subtitling”.

“As noted above, we are disappointed with the decision taken by RNID and hope that in time they will choose to re-engage with the Association and its work in this area in a spirit of progress and co-operation,” he said.