Latest release movies with open captions are playing throughout New Zealand, thanks in large part to the efforts of deaf campaigner Kim Robinson.
Robinson lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission in 2001, that led to a series of meetings with film distributors, cinema owners, the Deaf Association, the Hearing Association and Captioning Access NZ. The result was the launch in October 2003 of captioned movies on a 13-city circuit throughout New Zealand.
Open captions provide access to movies for people who are deaf or hard of hearing by rendering the audio as text, usually at the bottom of the screen. Unlike foreign language subtitles, which are a translation of the dialogue only, captions include other elements of the soundtrack such as sound effects and music. They are also coloured and positioned on screen to help the viewer follow who is speaking.
Visit Captioning Access NZ for details of what′s on and where. You can also sign up for a regular email listing of captioned movies. Also see Captioned Movies NZ on Facebook.
Developed by app developer Structure6, Subtitles allows easy access to a huge library of movie subtitles in 20 languages. Subtitles is especially useful for the hearing impaired, and people who would like access to subtitles in their native language when visiting the cinema.
You’ll be able to access the subtitles of the very latest cinema releases, as well as those for older movies.
The application currently supports a number of different languages.
For more information and to download the app (which costs USD $0.99) visit the iTunes site.