Due to the pandemic, who knew movie theaters would be affected so severely and closed for months? Who knew that open captioning would become a public health issue?
Things will not be the same when theaters do reopen. More importantly, are you going to accept having to use closed caption equipment again if your theater does not offer open captions? Closed caption equipment that you must touch, or wear? Closed caption equipment that has been used by other people and that may or may not have been cleaned by the theater prior to being handed to you?
Some users of closed caption equipment say to just bring a disinfecting wipe. But what if you do bring a disinfecting wipe and try to wipe the equipment clean but miss a part of the surface that is contaminated with the virus? Then you could possibly get Covid-19, and even worse, spread Covid-19 to your family or friends.
Therefore, this is the time to DEMAND open captions, before theaters reopen. Yes, DEMAND. Because of Covid-19, it is no longer just about you, the person with hearing loss or special needs. It is now about everyone! If you use contaminated closed caption equipment unknowingly, you could be spreading the virus in your community.
Open captions cost theaters nothing, and are the safest option at this time – and anytime! More than ever now, we need for this petition at https://tinyurl.com/ocmoviesnow to grow again. And we are not the only ones speaking up about this issue! The nonprofit organization Deaf Entertainment Access Foundation has started its own petition asking for touch-free open captions: https://tinyurl.com/octouchfree.
Theaters will not stay closed forever. They will reopen, and when they do, is it going to be safe for you to go back to the theater? Before Covid-19, we respected the use of closed caption equipment by those who preferred closed caption equipment or those who had no choice because movie theaters imposed closed captioning equipment upon patrons who needed captions, disregarding requests for open captions 99% of the time. No more! Now, we are urging you to REFUSE to go back to theaters unless they offer open captions. It is now a PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE!
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