My pal, Karen Utter, of the Hearing Loss Association of Washington, encouraged me not long ago to try Close Captioning at the movies. While Captionfish.com lists local movie theaters using closed captioning, I just never seemed to make it to the movies for a captioned show. Last Friday night, I went to the Regal Thornton Creek cinemas, a nearby theater for my family – and I was excited to notice the ticket I bought for “The Fighter” was marked Closed Captioning.

When I inquired about how it worked, the customer service desk gave me an odd pair of glasses, connected by a wire to a receiver about the size of a deck of cards. The receiver hangs from your neck on a cord, facing the screen and controls the captions.  They show up on the glass of these bulky glasses, with options for focus, and distance viewing.

In the dark of the theater, I put on the contraption and was thrilled to see that the captions showed up quite nicely against the image of the movie and that it enhanced my viewing experience immensely.

The Customer service representative at the theater explained they now show ALL their films (with the exception of IMAX) with this technology and all it takes is a piece of ID to sign one viewer out to use at any film.  I will certainly be back and hope to see all my future films with closed captioning!