GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — For the deaf and hard of hearing community, forms of entertainment can be harder to find. A local movie theater chain wants to help make that search a little bit easier.
"Our company's priority is to provide enjoyable movie going that's comfortable for as wide of a cross section of the community as we can," says Emily Loeks, public relations for Studio C.
Studio C will offer open caption showings at two locations, Celebration Cinema Rivertown in Grandville and Celebration Cinema Crossroads in Portage, but plans to expand to all locations later in the year.
The showings are on Sundays and include all wide release films for their first two weeks running.
To organize the showings, Studio C reached out to Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services in Kentwood for help.
"There are other theaters that have open captions available, but this is the first that has reached out to us and included the community's guidance in their process," says Erica Chapin, community and partnerships manager for D&HHS.
Celebration Cinemas have previously offered closed caption shows to guests upon request.
"You can check out a device and our managers desk at a theater for free, and it enables you to get captioning for any movie any show time any day of the week," explains Loeks.
But open captioning puts the subtitles directly on the screen, simplifying the whole process.
"There's a lot less stress," says Chapin. "You just are able to go and purchase your ticket and go in and enjoy the movie."
Loeks says turning on the captions isn't necessarily an easy process, but believes it's a worthwhile one.
"On Netflix, it's as simple as a push of a button," says Loeks. "Here we have to ingest and program a different format of the movie."
But she believes it's a worthwhile one, even helping people who aren't necessarily hard of hearing.
"It also serves some of our audience for whom English is a second language, seeing captioning on the screen can be can be enjoyable," says Loeks.
"We all look forward to going to see the releases of our favorite movies with a group of friends, maybe a fan base," says Chapin. "So giving an opportunity to deaf and hard of hearing individuals as well is really what accessibility is all about."
Open caption showings will be clearly marked on Celebration's website with an OCAP marking.
RELATED VIDEO:
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.