His bill proposes that any cinema with 5 screens or more offers at least one screen with captions. The delivery method would be left up to the cinema to decide, ranging from closed captioned services (such as Rear Window) to open captioning.
Jones cites attitude as the main barrier to widespread adoption. “It comes down to the people simply not wanting to spend the money to provide this service.”
The three judges hearing the case demonstrated a keen interest in the issue and grilled the lawyer for Harkins about why his company didn’t just “do the right thing” and provide the technology to allow people with hearing and vision impairments to enjoy movies. At several points the judges expressed surprise that Harkins had chosen to fight this case so hard.
Before making a decision on the application, the Commission has written to the applicants with a request for further information on a number of issues raised in submissions from the general public. In order to ensure continuing transparency in processing the application, the content of the Commission’s letter has been added to the documentation on its website, and any responses to the letter will be added when received.
