Some urge more open caption options for Frederick's deaf moviegoers

Jul. 28—Last year, Sarah Clark and her dad bought tickets to see Disney's "Strange World" at Warehouse Cinemas Frederick.

They were promised that the showing would include open captions — which provide a descriptive transcript of the audio of a movie, and are burned into the video itself, meaning they can't be turned off like closed captions can be.

Sarah, who is deaf, relies on open captions for a moviegoing experience comparable to her hearing counterparts.

But when the movie started, the 12-year-old movie enthusiast and her dad realized there were no open captions on the screen, Sarah said. She added that a staff member informed them that the listing was a mistake, and that there wouldn't be any open captions for that showing.

The family was given a free voucher in exchange for the mistake, but Sarah said she was upset.

"I actually started to cry a little bit," Sarah told The Frederick News-Post in American Sign Language through an interpreter. "I was so disappointed because I had been looking forward for weeks to see that film."

In response to a request for comment on open captions, Rich Daughtridge, the president and CEO of Warehouse Cinemas, said: "Warehouse Cinemas has made it a practice to consistently provide open caption film selections and showtimes at our three locations — Frederick, Hagerstown and Baltimore. We work closely with the deaf and hard of hearing community to program based on the demand in each location."

The "Strange World" situation is one that Sarah and other deaf moviegoers in the Frederick area say they've experienced too often.

While Frederick's two movie theaters — Warehouse Cinemas on West Patrick Street and Regal Westview on Buckeystown Pike — are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and other regulations because they provide closed captioning devices, activists in the Deaf and hard of hearing communities say that's not enough.

Closed captioning devices include goggles and handheld LED stands that display captions for individual users who request them. The devices have been criticized by multiple moviegoers because they're often glitchy, bulky and inconvenient.

"There are just these disgusting glasses or goggles," said Sharon Lynn, Sarah's mom. "There is no deaf person that I know that wants to use that. And besides, who thinks that is an equal experience?"

Sarah added that because she wears glasses, using captioning goggles is uncomfortable.

Sarah and Lynn are among those across the state who have pushed for more stringent standards about movie accessibility. They've urged their local theaters to expand to more frequent and consistent open captions.

The infrequency of open captions at movie showings is prevalent across the nation — but it's especially unfortunate in Frederick, which has a large Deaf and hard of hearing community, including her daughter, Lynn said.

"People have put themselves in charge to say that my daughter ... has less rights than a hearing child," she said.

At Regal Westview, which has 16 screens, about one movie showing per day has open captions, according to the theater's website.

Barbie options

Those who want to watch the blockbuster "Barbie" with open captions at the theater next week, for instance, can only access it at 1:50 p.m. on Sunday or 12:40 p.m. on Wednesday.

Comparatively, Regal Westview is offering 35 total showings of "Barbie" without open captions between Sunday and Thursday of next week.

Regal Westview did not respond to a request for comment last week. A staff member who answered the phone at the theater directed a News-Post reporter to Regal Cinemas' national media line. Representatives at that number did not respond to two separate voice-mail messages requesting comment on July 24 and 28.

Warehouse's Frederick location, which opened in 2020 and houses seven screens, has slightly more offerings — about two movies a day are shown with open captions.

But advocates say the options there are lacking, too.

For patrons who want to see "Barbie" at that theater, for example, there are also two open caption showtimes available between Sunday and Thursday.

Warehouse Frederick offers 62 showings of "Barbie" without open captioning in that same time period.

Nat Balsley, a deaf Frederick resident who is an informal liaison between the area's Deaf community and the staff at the Warehouse and Regal Westview theaters, said the scarcity of open captioned showings means they sell out fast.

"This is great, but can also be a downside considering those who depend on open captions may be left out if this only showing sells out. Hearing folks can always go with another non-open captioned showing, while deaf folks cannot," he wrote in an email to the News-Post.

Balsley said he's had positive experiences working with the staff at the theaters, but they haven't been entirely receptive to requests for more open captioning.

Westview Regal, he said, defers to its corporate office for guidance on how many open caption showings to have, meaning deaf and hard of hearing moviegoers are often left without enough options.

And Warehouse's Frederick location hasn't made much progress on adding more than two open captioned showings per day, he said.

Proposed legislation

Some activists have gone beyond pushing local theaters for more open captions.

Jacob Leffler, who is deaf, is part of a group called the Open Captioning Movie Committee. The group has lobbied the Maryland General Assembly to pass a state law that would require most movie theaters in the state to provide open captions for at least two showings of each movie per week.

The group began its efforts in 2021. Since then, a bill requiring theaters to provide open captioning has been introduced each year, but has not passed.

The most recent iteration of the bill, HB0264 and SB0400, introduced in the House and Senate during the 2023 legislative session, would have required any company that operates two or more movie theaters in the state to offer at least two open captioned showings per movie per week. The bill did not make it out of committee.

The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee voted to study the issue further over the summer.

Leffler's group plans to tackle the effort again in the 2024 session, he said, with the hope that Maryland follows the example of Hawaii, which passed a law in 2015 mandating open captioning for at least two showings of each movie at a theater per week.

"We hope that both Committees in the Senate and House will pass this bill to ensure that everyone can enjoy the movie together without feeling different since we have a device," Leffler wrote in an email to the News-Post.

Although the 2023 bill did not pass, it garnered support, including from Sarah and her dad, Scott Clark, who testified in front of the state Judicial Proceedings Committee in support of the bill in February.

But the proposal had critics, too.

In testimony to the Judicial Proceedings Committee, Ellen Valentino, representing the Mid-Atlantic National Association of Theater Owners, said open captioning "just does not have that kind of demand."

"This legislation could have unintentional consequences of further alienating some moviegoers that avoid open captioned shows and accelerating the closing of more theaters," Valentino said.

Representatives from The Charles Theatre in Baltimore, Regal Cinemas and AMC Theatres also testified against the bill.

Broader benefits

But Lynn, Sarah's mom, said open captions aren't just beneficial for deaf and hard of hearing individuals, as some claimed in their testimony.

They can provide clarity for people who speak English as a second language, have auditory processing issues and more, she said. In her experience, she said open captions haven't limited moviegoers.

"When we've gone to movies before, the movie theater is packed even with open captioning," Lynn said. "The majority of people I've talked to don't even care."

A 2015 study backed by the National Institutes of Health echoed the benefits of open captions.

More than 100 empirical studies show that captions are helpful for both deaf and hearing people, the study said, including one experiment that showed that comprehension scores among deaf and hearing children went up when they watched a video with captions.

Sarah and other advocates said it's discouraging that theaters, lawmakers and others don't always understand these benefits.

But Sarah remains optimistic.

"I'm very hopeful. We can't give up," she said. "I think it'll all work out and we have to persevere."