Saturday, November 22, 2014

Deal cut to get Captioning in more Movie Theaters

Owners of movie theaters have made an agreement with groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing to get closed captioning in theaters. The deal still needs the approval of the Justice Department. If approved, the National Association of Theatre Owners would have to have a dozen devices available for reading the closed captioning at megaplexes. Theaters would also have to keep up with how much the devices are used--and have more available if the demand requires it. Plus, theaters would be required to put information on websites as well as on tickets as to which movies have captioning available. And all this would all have to be in place within two years of the agreement's approval.  Groups involved in the negotiations include the National Association of the Deaf, the Alexander Graham Bell Association, the Association of Late Deafened Adults and the Hearing Loss Association of America.