September 7, 2005
Ontario Association of the Deaf (OAD) is a consumer-based, province-wide organization whose mandate is advocating for deaf, deafened and hard of hearing Ontarians' rights to equality, access and justice.
It is OAD's position that Deaf, deafened or hard-of-hearing Ontarians have the right to enjoy movies in theatres. Currently, they face discrimination by movie distributors and theatre owners in that their movies are not captioned for their access. Furthermore, the provision of captioning in theatres allow deaf, deafened and hard of hearing Ontarians to participate in society fully especially with their own family members who can hear. The lack of captioning places deaf, deafened and hard of hearing Ontarians on the fringe of society, which in this day and age, is totally unacceptable.
The fact that deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people in many other countries are currently enjoying captioned and subtitled movies at theatres is an indication that the provision of captioning in theatres could be done without undue hardship by movie distributors and theatre owners.
Finally, at last but not least, OAD commends Gary Malkowski, Nancy Barker and Scott Simser for undertaking the challenge for bringing the attention of movie distributors and theatre owners to providing access for a sector of society who cannot hear their movies. We view this as an opportunity for the movie distributors and theatre owners to incorporate the needs of deaf, deafened and hard of hearing Ontarians and make their facilities as popular for them as they are for the mainstream society who currently enjoy their movies.
Yours truly,
Jennifer A. Jackson, B.A. (Hons.),
LL.BMember of the Law Society of Upper Canada
Executive Director