How the Smith Family Goes to the Movies

The Smith family wants to see a movie together in a movie theater. Let’s meet the Smith family.

• Grandma and Grandpa Smith. Grandpa recently started wearing a hearing aid, and Grandma may need one next.
• Mom and Dad. Both are in their mid-40s, and Dad has begun turning up the volume on the television for some reason. Is Dad beginning to lose hearing as he ages? At the same time, noisy movie theaters bother Mom.
• Son David. David is eight years old, smart, but struggles with reading at school.
• Daughter Katie. Katie is five years old, sensitive to noise, and may be on the autism spectrum.
• Uncle Arthur. Uncle Arthur met his wife Melissa overseas when he was fighting in a war, and she just moved to the United States. She is learning English quickly, but English is still a challenge for her. Exposure to gunshots and bombs has cost Arthur some of his hearing.
• Aunt Debbie and Uncle Danny. Their ten year old son Donald is deaf, uses cochlear implants, and sign language. Aunt Debbie sometimes does not understand actors who have accents.
• Cousin Elizabeth, 25 years old. She does not have any hearing problems but grew up using closed captions on TV and now she likes closed captions.

How can the entire Smith family enjoy a movie in a theater together? Answer: Open captions. Open captions are similar to subtitles in a foreign film, with the words right on the screen. Therefore, no special equipment is needed to be able to see the captions.

Where can the Smith family see a movie with open captions in Northern Virginia? Currently, they can see an open captioned movie at nine Regal, AMC, and independent movie theaters in Northern Virginia. (At this time Cinemark does not offer open captions.) These nine theaters are:

AMC:

• AMC Worldgate in Herndon
• AMC Courthouse in Arlington
• AMC Hoffmann in Alexandria

Regal:

• Regal Fairfax Town Center
• Regal Springfield Town Center
• Regal Kingstowne

Independent:

• Cinema Arts Theatres in Fairfax
• University Mall Theatres in Fairfax

Other:

• Angelika Film Center & Café at Mosaic in Merrifield

Open captioned movies are limited in availability, however. If the Smith family is on Facebook, they can learn about scheduled open captioned screenings by checking the page Northern Virginia Open Captioned Movies (https://www.facebook.com/novaocmovies). If they are not on Facebook, there is an email list, which can be subscribed to by emailing dc.deaf.moviegoers@gmail.com. All the popular movies usually have open captioned screenings scheduled during the first two weekends, though the theaters have been known to show the movie open captioned again.

The Smith family enjoyed the movie. Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Arthur did not have to struggle to understand. Dad did not have to be embarrassed by not being able to hear well. Mom was not annoyed by noise because she could understand the movie even with noise around her. David’s reading skills improved. The words on the screen helped hold Katie’s attention. Aunt Melissa was able to improve her English skills. Donald was able to follow the movie even after the batteries in his cochlear implants died. Debbie had no problem understanding actors when there were foreign scenes. And cousin Elizabeth enjoyed the captions.

Open captioned movies are for everyone.