May 3, 2011 - Cinemark Holdings, one of the largest motion picture exhibitors, has agreed to roll out closed captioning technology in every auditorium of their first run theaters in California by June 2012. Half of Cinemark's theaters in California already have captioning capability.
California's Disability Rights Advocates filed suit against Cinemark on behalf individuals with hearing loss and ALDA (Association of Late Deafened Adults), charging the theatre company with discrimination. In a one-day negotiation, the company agreed it is time for closed captioning. The suit has been dismissed.
HLAA is thrilled to see closed captioning being rolled out and expects to see more theaters provide closed captioning devices across the country as theater owners forge ahead with installation of digital equipment to display movies. In fact, Cinemark is not alone in moving ahead. Regal Cinemas is making its first run movie theaters fully accessible to people with hearing loss in Seattle, Washington. John Waldo of Wash-CAP filed a lawsuit in 2009 in Seattle that resulted in greater access to captioned films. Wash-CAP reports that Regal has done everything Wash-CAP asked of them. Regal has a page on its website that identifies all its open and closed captioned showings, organized according to state. We note that closed captioning is listed as available not only in the Seattle area, but also in Plattsburg, NY. www.regmovies.com/nowshowing/opencaptionedshowtimes.aspx
AMC also provides information about their open and captioned showings. They note that nearly 160 theaters have Rear Window captioning (which they also refer to as "closed captioning"). You may check the schedules for their films at www.amctheatres.com/AssistedMoviegoing or visit www.captionfish.com, which provides information about your local captioned and subtitled showings, regardless of theaters.
For more information on Cinemark's agreement, read the news release on Cinemark and visit Wash-CAP's blog at www.hearinglosslaw.com.
