Photo Credit: above photo was taken by me, Shannon O’Malley.

A hearing and deaf couple go to a local movie theater to watch movie and experience something they have never experienced before.

I  am a hearing female engaged to a deaf man. My fiancé was born deaf into a complete hearing family. They didn’t discover he was deaf until he was about 3 years old. He was 4 when he got his 1st set of hearing aids and 9 before he spoke his first words. Shortly after finding out he was deaf, his mother studied to become a speech therapist and was essential in helping him build his speaking skills. He now has 3 children, all of whom are hearing.

Prior to meeting him, I can honestly say that I had not much thought about the struggles anyone who is deaf or hard of hearing go through. I feel I was so ignorant now… it amazes how behind the times our world is in adapting to these communities!

In our Youtube video we describe a recent experience we had at our local movie theater. We were no more than 10 minutes into the movie when his caption box stopped working. This has been an ongoing issue at any theater he has ever gone to. Very often they are not taken care of appropriately at the theater and get damaged or not fully charged.  He had to get up to go see a manager to get a working contraption. It took him nearly 20 minutes to do so, all the while missing the movie.

When he returns, no more than 10-15 minutes later, a theater employee is making her way up our aisle and interrupts us during the movie by reaching across me and grabbing for his caption device provided by the theater and says firmly, “Excuse me sir, you need to put that away”. I   looked up at her confused (and angry) and pleedingly said, “But, it is his caption box”. She then retreated and let us be. I    was fuming and feeling hurt for my fiancé. Being that it was dark and the fact that he is deaf, this went on with him really knowing what was going on until I explained it after the movie.

After the movie was over, we went up to the counter and asked if someone had reported him and they said yes.  We were dumbfounded that this would even happen. Someone had thought he was either using his cell phone or trying to pirate the movie.  This made us realize that enough is enough. There has got to be something that can be done so this does not happen to anyone else.

Watch our YouTube video HERE. Please share and help spread awareness!

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I  too never knew these archaic appearing captions boxes existed until I met my fiancé. There is an immense lack of some simple education out there to the general public and in the employees being trained into their positions and the theaters.

Throwing in a simple 3-7 second commercial or ad before the movie starts right along with the “silence your phone or see something say something” portion could help educate all. Something like this could have prevented the movie theater employee from interrupting our movie!

We hearing people do not see many of these devices being used at the theaters because of the constant issues with them and the lack of captions on the screens. Because of this, there are no deaf or hard of hearing individuals going to the movie theaters! So many could benefit from adding captions to the screens.

It is time to educate the masses and get captions on the big screens!! It is time for a #captionrevolution

Time for equality for all disabilities at the movie theaters! Let us all stand strong together and help get this done!