We are writing to lend our whole-hearted support to the human rights action being brought forward by Gary Malkowski, Nancy Barker and Scott Simser to make captioning in movie theatres universally available.
With rear-window captioning, captioned movies are now accessible to deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people for the very first time. This technology has broken through a long-standing barrier that has excluded people with hearing loss from having access to the first-run movies that hearing people take for granted. Stories of having to drive to the United States to see movies should become a thing of the past; these stories should now be prefaced by "I remember when…."
Our research shows that almost one in four adult Canadians reports having some degree of hearing loss. As the population ages, the number of people who will benefit from captioning at the movies will grow dramatically. With the recent passing of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, we cannot see any justification for movie theatres being inaccessible to this significant portion of the population.
In addition to the duty to accommodate, ensuring equal access to movies makes good business sense. If one member of the family or one friend is unable to enjoy the movies, the rest of their group will choose another form of entertainment that is accessible. The lack of equal access discriminates against entire families.
Currently, most movie complexes have only one viewing room equipped with rear-window captioning - if they have one at all. This limited availability does not constitute equal access.
The Canadian Hearing Society fully endorses all legal efforts to secure captioning in movie theatres to ensure full and equal access for deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people.
Sincerely,
Bob Alexander
Board Chair
Kelly Duffin
President and CEO