With the New Year, Hawaii became the first state to accommodate the hearing and visually impaired in movie theaters, reports Hawaii News Now.
Hawaii Governor David Ige signed a bill that was passed by the state House of Representatives in May 2015 requiring movie theaters to provide open captioning, or subtitles on the screen, for at least two showings per week, taking effect on Jan. 1, 2016.
According to Hawaii News Now, theaters had tried closed captioning for individuals, but it didn’t quite work.
Hyram Navigator, a freshman intercultural studies major from Arizona, commented on the previous state of closed captioning. “It depended on the theater services that they offered,” Navigator said. “But a lot of times they offered these glasses that would show the subtitles, but they weren't very good. They were really kind of junky, and a lot of times they weren’t in time with the video.”
Echoing Navigator’s sentiment, Billy Kekua, who is deaf, stopped going to theaters because he felt the closed captioning was unreliable and found the eyeglasses uncomfortable, according to Hawaii News Now. “I had to wear the glasses on top of my eyeglasses. It was never a good experience for me as a deaf person,” he reportedly said through an interpreter.
Navigator’s sister owns an international non-profit organization for deaf people and said much of her exposure to the deaf community came through that and BYU–Hawaii’s American Sign Language Student Association.
Theaters had tried other means of closed captioning that were equally unsuccessful, which brought about the change in Hawaii law. Kauai Representative James Tokioka, who proposed the bill, said of another theater’s method, “They had a captioning box that went in the cup, but a lot of times, you know, you have to look down, look up, look down, look up. And I know they tried to accommodate deaf people as much as they could, but it was very, very difficult.”
With the new law in place, Kekua and thousands of hard of hearing and deaf individuals will now be able to have equal access to movie theatres. It also successfully brings Hawaii one step closer to achieving full inclusion for deaf and blind communities that was first initiated with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Navigator said of the law, “I think it’s a big improvement because it’s moving less from a standpoint of viewing deaf as disabled and more about viewing it as if they just speak another language. We’re facilitating their ability to come to the movie theater and watch a movie in their language, which is a really big step for our society.”
Navigator said the mandate is leveling the playing field and giving people with disabilities “the opportunities shared by the rest of society.”