Now let's suppose those words were uttered by an actor in a Batman movie. If you are hearing, you will be able to see the movie in your local cinema when it comes out in June. But if you are deaf or severely hard of hearing, you are out of luck and must wait as long as a year for the closed-captioned home video release.
Deaf and severely hard of hearing Batman fans, with rare exceptions, can not go to real movie theaters to see Batman movies (or any other movies). There are no open captions (like foreign film subtitles) on the movies. The theaters don't even show regular, selected screenings of open-captioned prints along with non-captioned prints. Captions are a must if deaf & hard of hearing people are going to be able to understand the film. You can get just so much out of a movie by just watching the Pow! Sock! Bam! action - all of the character dialogue is incomprehensible if you are deaf or severely hard of hearing.
But what about the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act? Sorry, but the ADA does not require open captions on films shown in real movie theaters. There *is* language in the Act's legislative history that says studios are "encouraged" to produce and theaters are "encouraged" to show open-captioned screenings, but to date that "encouragement" has been met with only voluntary, infrequent screenings of open-captioned films.
The result? Deaf and hard of hearing people have been shut out of the movies ever since 1927 when Al Jolson sang "Mammy" in the Jazz Singer. Many's the time I have stood outside the doors of a movie theater, aching to be able to buy a ticket and go inside.
For example, the last movie my deaf son and I (we are both deaf) were able to see in a real movie theater was "Batman Forever," in the Fall of 1995. That's right, I said 1995! I have not set foot inside a real movie theater since, and have not been able to. The only reason we were able to see that movie at all - just 3 months before its home video release - is because a local deaf organization managed to scrape together the funds to rent an open-captioned print from the only source of open-captioned first-run films that exists [because studios aren't making open-captioned films available through the normal distribution system], and one local movie theater was nice enough to allow the film to be shown at an odd hour, 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning.
It is a long shot, but I am trying to convince Warner Brothers to please, please put open captions on the new Batman film so my son and I can see it in a real movie theater when it comes out. I just know he is going to be pleading to see it when it does come out and the ads on TV start, and how disappointed he is going to be when we have to explain to him how he must wait as long as a year compared to hearing children, who can just go to their neighborhood movie theaters.
I can not fight the good fight alone. I need the help and public support of hearing Batman fans. I have been a Batman fan since I was 9 years old and was introduced to Batman one recess when the hearing kids in my class were reading an issue of World's Finest comics. Excited by the discovery, I ran home and dug out my only DC superhero comic book, an issue of Superman that I had never read because up until then I only read Archie and Harvey comics. From that day on, I was a DC comics fan.
If you are reading this and care about access for deaf and hard of hearing people to Batman movies, please contact Warner Brothers and ask them to please put open captions on selected prints of the new Batman movie, and to distribute those prints through the normal system so that when the new Batman film comes out we can go to the movie theater in our neighborhood to enjoy it - something we have never done!
Tim Drake will probably reveal his secret identity to his father, his girlfriend, or his pal Ives before I am able to watch Robin and Nightwing battle evil together on the big screen!
You can find more information on this issue on Closed/Open Captioning Web. This is the page on movie theater access.