AUSTIN, Texas — A movie is a shared experience where we can laugh, cry and enjoy each moment together in a theater. But for deaf people, access to these stories is much harder.
For 20 years, Nicole Barnes has been living with profound deafness, making it difficult to feed her passion for film.
"Probably starting when I was 17 or 18, I stopped going to movies altogether," Barnes said.
In 2018, it became required for movie theaters showing digital movies to provide closed captioning at a patron's seat, bringing Barnes back to the movie theater for the first time in 10 years.
But something shifted on Saturday night while she watching a special screening of "Romeo and Juliet" at the Alamo Drafthouse on Anderson Lane.
"Twenty minutes into the movie, the manager brings me another piece of paper, saying, 'This isn't going to work because it's an older movie and we didn't get the correct caption files from our distributor,'" Barnes said. "I just want them to take a little bit of accountability in making it easier for deaf people to know, anybody with a hearing disability to know, 'Hey, this movie is going to be a great experience for you or this one's not.'"
KVUE reached out to Alamo Drafthouse for an on-camera interview but a spokesperson sent us this statement:
"We're very sorry that this guest had such a lousy time – no one should be left out of the cinematic experience. However, we're thankful that they shared such constructive feedback, and the conversations it generated both online and inside our company. As a result, this week we've been reviewing our device coverage, maintenance, and training policies at all of our corporate locations, as well as different ways to note when Closed Captioning options are or aren't available."
Jodi Oates and Fallon Brizendine are on the American Sign Language faculty at Austin Community College. They say the deaf population encounters many challenges with captioning, also citing issues with closed caption glasses.
"Discrimination is still alive today as we see," Brizendine said.
"So, unfortunately, we've seen a lot of unfortunate events with those devices and those glasses. They're not charged properly as well," Oates added. "Movie theaters should just have open captions. I mean, this benefits all people, not necessarily just deaf people."
Breaking down barriers to share and tell cherished stories on the big screen is what Barnes wants to keep doing.
"Having accommodations is not a burden on somebody else. It is just a way to make things a little bit easier in a world that necessarily does not always accept us," Barnes said.