Now you may be wondering: Why do you talk so much about subtitling films in movie theaters?
Well, part of it is because film is one of my areas of interest. I really do think that art, including film, is an important part of life. I strongly believe that everybody should have access to art.
I have found that one of the reasons that movie theaters justify barring deaf people from movie theaters is because they simply don’t think that we are important enough to participate in this aspect of public life. I have heard excuses ranging from “We can’t afford to caption every movie” to “Deaf people are too noisy, and they will distract the other patrons.” (Yes, I truly did hear that latter one – at the age of twelve, when I was trying to learn if there were subtitles for a retrospective screening of E.T., no less.)
Today, at many theaters, the attitude seems to be: “We just don’t care enough about those deaf people to bother with them.” Sometimes it is: “Deaf people, who aren’t really people, will ruin the experience of the people who really matter, i.e., hearing people.” The end result is the same, though: unaccessibility.
So I think that allowing everybody access to this art form would really be one of many possible gestures to show that everybody is valued equally in society. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that contemporary society values everybody equally, but I think that this should change.
However, I do not think that deaf activism will ever get anywhere if we do not fight for the right of all deaf individuals to gain access to art, not just the relatively privileged white middle- to upper- class deaf people who can afford to go to movies once they are subtitled. To ignore some oppressions in favor of talking about others is a very reductionist mentality that is actively harmful and cannot be justified in the name of “simplifying” the discussion. For example: to say that a the concerns of a middle-class deaf person is somehow more important than those of a working-class deaf person is accomplishing nothing in the fight against oppression. It’s simply oppressing somebody else.
With this in mind, how do we expand the discussion about allowing deaf people access to movie theatres?
The first step would be to recognize that there are often intersecting oppressions. Many deaf people also belong to another minority group with regards to class, race, sexual orientation, and so forth.
Class is a huge consideration, because art has traditionally been conceived as being part of the domain of the elite. Many people simply cannot afford to take the time or money to go to an expensive movie theater or to rent DVDs; furthermore, many people do not own the technology required to watch a movie at home.
An additional barrier to accessibility that I encountered while in high school in Utah revolved around sexual orientation. When Brokeback Mountain came out, Larry H. Miller, a prominent businessman in Salt Lake City who owned the Utah Jazz basketball team, several car dealerships, movie theaters, and so forth, refused to screen Brokeback Mountain at his movie theatre chain upon learning that the film was a romantic story about two men.
These are just some examples of how a deaf person who is a member of another minority may experience barriers, regardless of if a film is subtitled or not. There are many more stories out there. They are all unjustly discriminatory.
In order to ensure access to movie theaters for every single deaf person, subtitles are a great first step. I am angry that a large portion of filmed and televised material in the US remains un-subtitled twenty years after the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law. I strongly believe that there is no reason for this barrier to remain, and that it should be eliminated.
But subtitles are not enough: other barriers must also be eliminated. There is no reason for any other barrier to equality to exist. And, after all, subtitles will not do us any good if deaf people are not able to watch a movie because of censorship or inability to access the film for some other reason.
