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. This filing, as modified, asked those theaters to provide access through a seat-based system such as the Rear Window Captioning system or other forms of auxiliary aids that would provide effective communication. 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.
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. Studios also need to work with theaters to ensure provision of captioned, first-run movies in theaters nationwide and advertise captioned films as they would any other movie.