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Author Topic: Hearing-impaired get movie treat Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 05-10-2004 10:56 AM                        We once had a guy sneak his wife into the drive-in, parking his oversized "macho-man" pickup truck in the middle of the field (where such vehicles aren't allowed). When approached, he tried to intimidate the staff by waving his wife's handicapped parking placard around, saying that gave him the right to park wherever he wanted. A call to the Sheriff fixed the issue, temporarily (he escorted them off the property). The guy filed a complaint with the State, presenting (of course) his view of the situation. After sending in our side, the State dropped the issue... but sheesh... what a pain in the I agree, John. It's a shame that some people take unfair advantage of the situation. On assistive devices: I've got probably 40 sets of headphones in our indoor... most of which have been in their boxes for years. We keep 3 downstairs, because that's more than we've ever used at one time.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 05-10-2004 12:32 PM                        Regal has been running open-captioned movies here on Tuesdays for quite a while, so someone must be attending. They usually run one mid-afternoon show and one evening show. This week: "Mean Girls".  |  IP: Logged Carl Martin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1424 From: Oakland, CA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 05-10-2004 04:56 PM                        quote: Thomas Procyk he should only have to pay half price because he can only enjoy half of the experience. looking at some film, i'd say he's enjoying about 7/8 of the experience, in terms of area. btw, joe's site is quite informative. carl  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 05-11-2004 04:31 PM                     About 25 years ago I worked with a deaf man in a DMV data processing dept. Our job was stuffing punch cards into various machines. It was so noisy that we had to wear earplugs to prevent hearing damage. Ray found it amusing that even though he had been daaf from birth he had to use them too. Ray is a frequent movie goer. He learned to read lips, etc. very early on and misses little dialog. On TV he also gets the beeped profanity. He has NO sympathy for those deaf who have not availed themselves to all that he has because it is all free. The state has provided all the handicap training he has received. The payback for the state is that he is now a highly paid programming consultant. He probably pays more in taxes every year than it cost the government to help him over come his deafness. All his college he paid for himself. When others try to make a big deal of his accomplishements, he says he has only done what he should.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 05-11-2004 07:02 PM                    Is someone seriously advocating that every movie be shown with open captions for every show? Ridiculous. Frankly I think the consent agreement sets a bad precedent. Is a business really required to purchase everything that comes along? Do they need to equip the handicapped washroom stalls with those Japanese ass-washer toilet/bidets simply because the invention exists?  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 05-11-2004 09:53 PM                        ...from Steve: quote: Steve Kraus Do they need to equip the handicapped washroom stalls with those Japanese ass-washer toilet/bidets simply because the invention exists? I thought those were a product of progressive French thinking. Well, anyway... if they can't reach back far enough, and if they think about the bidets on their own, it just might happen. Of course, we'll have to put up proper signage on those stalls for the blind, which could be interesting.  |  IP: Logged Dominique Replogle Film Handler Posts: 61 From: Highland Utah Registered: Apr 2004 posted 05-11-2004 09:55 PM                        Right on Jack. I expect no less from a man from kitsap county.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 05-12-2004 12:00 AM                     To make things equal, when the deaf person complains, just turn off the sound, that way equality prevails. If it exists I think it is safe to assume that the sorry assed federal govt. will require it. Eventually it will be more practical to say fuck it and close than try to appease every asshole who wants something that costs the business owner a fortune for nothing.  |  IP: Logged Lindsay Morris Expert Film Handler Posts: 233 From: Darlington, WA, Australia Registered: Sep 2002 posted 05-13-2004 04:06 AM                     I have had a query from our local council during the last season along the lines of "what I was doing for people with impaired hearing". I got sort of edgy when hit with this request from the Disabilities Liason Officer as she called herself. We handle wheel chaired patons Ok being a grassed venue and gentle slopes and no steps etc and we get quite a few regulars like this over each summer. But hearing impaired hmmm I dunno about that. A bit further digging revealed that ONE profoundly deaf lady had made the request as she wanted to attend the "odd' film each season. When I explained how I thought the screen captioning worked and the approximate cost the shire lady backed off but said "if this becomes a requirement in the future you could be forced to instal the system" My response was: if that happens we simply close down as the economics are just not there for the odd client who may need the service. Over winter I screen for another group at another venue and there is installed a hearing loop system or a Infrared unit or similar and after a sound system upgrade the feed to that system was disconnected for about 2 years and not one bleat in that time. How we found out was that one of the regulars uses a hearing aid a bit as his hearing is going and he commented that "why was it that the hearing aid system no longer worked" and then we went looking and found the answer. Is it correct that the closed captioning system is only available when DTS is used as the necessary data etc is buried on the DTS discs?? does anyone know how it works. I have seen references to projecting the subtitles onto the screen via a video projector fed from the DTS system. If only DTS can do it what about films that do not have DTS tracks are we going to have deaf folk beating us about the head cos the captions are not there?? Lindsay  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-13-2004 09:20 AM                     Dolby has also offered a caption/subtitle system that is in use in some UK venues  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-13-2004 11:36 AM                        As others have mentioned, you put in the system and it is very infrequently used. In all out theatres we put in infrared hearing assist about 5 years ago. If we have had 15 requests for units in all that time, it would be allot. And a number of them were HEARING persons who just saw that they could get "headphones" for free, so they wanted them. It became a real issue as to how do you identify a person with real disability? Do you stand there while everyone is in line demanding they show the results of some kind of hearing test? Our people just hand them the headphones. We finally changed the signage to Inquire about Hearing Assisted ADA Compliant equipment. We no make no reference to headphones. Hearing impaired people know what the sign means. On the other hand, given our seat count (2500) and what that required us to purchase, we could hand out dozens to any non-impaired patron and have plenty left over for those who really need them. Most are collecting dust and the staff has to be reacquainted with how to use them every so often. I am not suggesting that these devices not be part of our operation, only that when establishments were forced to put in these very costly systems, I don;t think the authors of the regulations anticipated how underutilized they would be. As for the captioning issue, I understand how the rear display system works technically, but where does the information that is displayed on the LED panel come from and how is it synched to the film? Obviously if a film company hasn't done the translation and supplied whatever medium the system uses, the hardware is useless. So why aren't the studios named in this guy's lawsuit? How can a AMC and Loews be expected to comply with this ruling if the film producers aren't part of the solution? Seems to me, in an economic model where the studio gets 90% of the gate, they should absorb 90% of the cost of supplying captioning. What does an arthouse do with films that have never had any captioning data supplied? We had to (required by the ADA law) install two rest rooms at great expense on the main floor level because our rest rooms were all either on the mezz, balcony or basement level. But because the new ADA rr are closer, people with no discernible problem head right for them (many times running ahead of those less agile of gate -- this is Brooklyn remember). So what do you do? Do you have ushers stop blue haired old men and old ladies and say, this bathroom is ONLY for people in wheelchairs? People can have medical problems that make it difficult or even impossible for them to walk up or down stairs but they are not necessarily in wheelchairs. So how to you separate people who just want the convenience of the closest restroom and those who are really disabled? Make them do a little break dancing before you bar them from the ADA facilities? It's vexing issue. Our solution, put up an ADA wheelchair sign and have the word ONLY underneath and rely on the honor system (which works about 40% of the time). We let the older people by without much intervention, but if we see someone in a wheelchair on line, our ushers are instructed to bring them to the head of the line and let them in before anyone else who is on line and standing on both legs. OFF TOPIC ALERT (sort of, but it's a good story): A friend of mine once called and said he had an extra ticket for Angels In America when it was playing on Broadway. I was thrilled to get a chance to see it because it had just opened. When I met him at his house, I was surprised to find out that his wife who had MS and wheelchair bound decided that she wasn't up to going. As we were about to leave the house, he asked me to give him a hand with the motorized wheelchair. "But I thought Marie wasn't going." "She's not." he answers. "Then why the wheelchair." "Oh, because this is a ticket for an ADA seat and it can't be changed....you are going in place of my wife." I protested loudly saying absolutely not, but all the awhile, he kept saying it was the only way to use the ticket and explained that the theatre wouldn't refund ADA seats and there was no time to find anyone else could use it....they had exhausted the list of all their disabled friends, none could attend. I suggested they try to give it away, but he said disabled people rarely go to show hoping another disabled person might by chance be trying to sell a wheelchair ticket. Reluctantly I agreed. We found a parking spot a long way from the theatre, we got the wheelchair out of the van and I got in it. It was a lot trickier than one would imagine learning how to work the controls, but by about the fifth block away I had gotten the hang of maneuvering it up onto sidewalks. The closer we got to the theatre, the stronger the sickening feeling that this was a really, really bad idea came over me. Finally, I take a deep breath and it's into the lobby, all the while trying to avoid running people down and discovering how really oblivious people are to the presence of a disabled person. They walk right in front of you, cutting you off without regard to your ability to make short turns or quick avoidance maneuvers. Finally we get to the ADA space and Companion Seat and the show starts. Angels in America is LONG -- something like 3 1/2 hours. Now a cold sweat comes over me as I realize that sooner or later I am going to have to go to the john. I decide that I will pee my pants rather than wheel myself into a handicap john and pretend that I am unable to walk. As it turns out, mercifully I didn't have to go that bad, but I cursed my pal for getting me into this mess. It was a really great show, though. On our way out of the theatre, in the middle of the lobby, I smell the distinct odor of electrical buring; it's coming from the wheelchair motor and everything grinds to a dead stop. Now I am struck with real terror. In the middle of a lobby full of exiting theatergoers, I may find in necessary to get up out of this chair, for all to discover that I am impersonating a cripple. I whispered to Ray that he'd better get the motor working or I was going to get up, shout "I AM CURED...I CAN WALK." and run out leaving him there with his wheelchair and what I was sure would be a very disagreeable crowd. He finally tightend a loose connection between the batteries and I we were spared the wrath of an angry mob. I am not very proud of this episode, but it was a learning experience and gave me insight into so many things that as a walking person, would never dawn on you could be insurmountable impediments to someone in a wheelchair. For example, in NYC, you would think that every single sidewalk would have curb cuts for wheelchairs; I always assumed there were. But at least two on the way to the theatre were not angled well enough for the chair to go up -- he had to manually tilt it or I would have had to roll out into the street into traffic to get down the block. If anyone were alone, they would be stuck. I am sure this it is the same with other disablities. A hearing person thinks captioning solves the problem. But obviously as was pointed out, not necessarily so. Anyway, that's my Angels In American; Angel In A Wheelchair story.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-13-2004 12:12 PM                        The DTS rear-window system gets the title data from special disks (the ones that I have seen were all CD-Rs) provided by the film distributor. They don't come with the print--they need to be specially ordered by the theatre. Relatively few films (always big mainstream titles) have the caption disks available, which means that the chances of getting them for art-house or repertory titles (which usually don't even have DTS soundtracks) are pretty much nonexistant. My feeling about the whole thing is that the DTS system may well make sense in a big-city downtown theatre or in an area with a large population of deaf people. On the other hand, I think that it is silly to require theatres to install something like this by law. This isn't a simple ramp or wide doorway--it is an expensive and highly specialized system which only works with some films and whose installation will almost never be justified in a small-town theatre. The headset hearing-impared systems (IR, radio, or hearing-aid loop) serve a different market (people who can hear, but not as well as most), but are much easier to justify. Cost is about $1000, and it is useful to a greater portion of the population than the DTS system. I'm all for making simple, inexpensive accommodations for customers with disabilities, but not for requiring theatre owners to make major investments which will never be justified.  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 05-13-2004 02:48 PM                     Scott writes, that the discs "don't come with the print--they need to be specially ordered by the theatre." This varys from studio to studio, but certainly you have to specify when booking. Universal has (with TES) a seperate stock of prints that have mopix discs in the can. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Carl Martin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1424 From: Oakland, CA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 05-13-2004 05:15 PM                        so a sign should be posted: "hearing impaired patrons are advised to make arrangements several weeks in advance so the right print can be booked." wonderful. btw frank, you have the best stories. when can we expect your memoirs to be published? carl  |  IP: Logged Robert Golding Film Handler Posts: 65 From: Sutter, CA, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 05-14-2004 03:51 AM                     Those of us who have drive in's with radio sound already just tell our people to invest in a Walkman. Then they can go all over the drive in and still hear the movies. This should help them on snack bar calls and restroom calls.  |  IP: Logged

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