The biggest news this past week was not just that Parasite, a Korean film with subtitles, won the Oscar for Best Picture. The biggest news was that subtitles and captions got a lot of attention because of Parasite!
There was a huge discourse on Twitter.
The New York Times, CNET, the Mary Sue, and the Washington Post ran articles after seeing that huge discourse. The writer of the Mary Sue article declared she loves subtitles even though she does not have hearing loss. Update: right after this update was published, the Huffington Post released a personal article by a deaf woman.
While there were those who declared they did not want subtitles (some for valid reasons such as vision impairment) they were largely drowned out by those who supported subtitles – deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing people. There were many hearing people proclaiming their love for subtitles. There were many hearing people sharing the reasons they use subtitles all the time. Plus several people with auditory processing disorders spoke up, joined by several with autism.
English teachers pointed out the literacy benefits. One deaf person’s tweet went viral. The Daily Moth did a video about the impact of the Parasite win.
The sheer volume could not be ignored as subtitles trended on Twitter. There were those who even demanded that all screenings have subtitles (this is not how it should be). The purpose of this petition is to demand that open captioned screenings be an option, not that they be required of all screenings.
Someone ran a poll asking “Who else watches everything with subtitles/captions?” About 70% of respondents said yes. If so many hearing people prefer to watch everything with captions, wouldn’t that translate to broader acceptance of open captioned screenings in movie theaters?
Plus, Parasite’s win drove people to movie theaters to experience subtitles. Afterwards, there were countless tweets saying things such as that they got used to the subtitles within five minutes.
Subtitles – captions – definitely having a moment!
Other Legislative News
Virginia
The Virginia bills HB 747 and SB 274 for open captioning have been continued to next year. So between now and then we need you to help grow the base of support for open caption legislation in Virginia by reaching out to everyone you know in Virginia who wants or supports open captions in movie theaters and asking them to sign the petition! So far, over 700 from Virginia have signed the petition – let’s get that up to 1,000!
Also, the Virginia Bill for Hearing Aids for Children Senate Bill SB 423 needs help from the over 700 Virginians who have already signed this petition! Full details are in this Facebook post: