CMC believes that public acceptance of captioning is on the rise. The public has become more exposed to captioning on televisions in their homes, as well as restaurants, health clubs, bars, and other noisy public places. D.C. CMC is monitoring the lawsuits. While we support the right of any individual or organization to seek legal remedies for alleged discrimination, we want solutions that would not lock into a particular technology, but leave open the possibility for other long-term solutions as technology evolves. CMC urges the studios to share responsibility with theaters in developing captioning solutions for their deaf, hard of hearing and late-deafened patrons.
Studios produce and distribute movies.
Through the direct-studio distribution method, studios decide which theaters may show which film, and sometimes even the particular screen, based on the popularity of the film and the theater s past box office receipts. Since 1993, theaters around the country have been arranging special open captioned showings of movies with a third-party distributor. There are few advertisements or symbols in newspapers to indicate which films are captioned. With rare exceptions, there are no regular schedules for captioned movies, making it difficult for people needing captions to know when they are available. CMC believes strongly that studios should use the direct-studio method to distribute captioned films, incorporating the cost and provision of captioning in film production budgets.