New York is one of the most multilingual cities in the world, yet at two of its most important cinemas, understanding an English-language film still depends on luck.

At Film at Lincoln Center and MoMA, open captions — captions printed on the screen for everyone — are offered only for select screenings. For most English-language screenings, the alternative is a personal closed-caption device: a small screen borrowed from the box office and mounted on a cup holder. These devices run out of battery, malfunction, and force viewers to split their attention between the screen and a second screen.

That is not equal access. It excludes Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences, it excludes the millions of New Yorkers for whom English is not a first language, and it frustrates everyone else when dialogue is buried under sound design, accents, or mumbling — the exact films NYFF and MoMA are known for.

This matters most when there is no second chance. At NYFF, most English-language films screen only a handful of times during the festival. At MoMA, many titles screen only once or twice a year. When those screenings include a director Q&A, the film itself is the conversation — if you miss the dialogue, you miss the Q&A too.

We ask Film at Lincoln Center and MoMA to:

1. At NYFF, make open captions the standard for all English-language screenings, starting with every screening with a director Q&A, introduction, or talk.
2. At MoMA, make open captions the standard for English-language screenings shown only once or twice a year, starting with every screening with a director Q&A, introduction, or talk.
3. Publish the open-caption schedule when the programme is announced, not after tickets go on sale.
4. Treat cup-holder caption devices as a supplement, never as a substitute for open captions.

Open captions cost little. They are already the standard for non-English-language films, which screen with English subtitles as a matter of course. English-language audiences deserve the same.

Sign if you have ever missed a line, borrowed a broken device, or skipped a screening because you could not be sure you would understand it.