http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/30/BAMJ1GJO6I.DTL
There have been many comments written in response, most of which are quite negative. Most of the people writing negative comments seemed very concerned that they'd have to pay much higher ticket fees if the suit was successful and if it cost $10,000 to install the technology, so they think people with hearing loss should just stay home and not drive up costs for anyone else.
However, the movie theaters have actually been very, very profitable. Last year alone, Cinemark paid out roughly $16,300 in dividends per theater. And Mary Watkins of WGBH's National Center for Accessible Media stated today that the actual cost of the Rear Window Captioning technology is now around $5000, not $10,000.
After learning all that, I submitted a comment on the SFgate.com web site to provide some of this additional information. If you like my comment, please mark it there as liked so that it'll be more likely to be read as a "popular" comment and will educate more people. (The most popular comment is negative and was "liked" by 129 people as of the time of this writing.) The easiest way to find my comment might be by going to this link:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/comments/view?f=/c/a/2010/11/30/BAMJ1GJO6I.DTL
Here's what I wrote:
1) According to Mary Watkins of WGBH, the actual cost of the Rear Window captioning system is around $5000 and is even less when purchased in bulk. (However, there are other kinds of closed captioning technology options in development, too.)
2) The movie theater chains can well afford to install this equipment. Last year alone, Cinemark paid out roughly $16,300 in dividends per movie theater. If they made their theaters more accessible by spending $5000 on the closed captioned equipment, they would bring in even more customers and make even more money.
3) Hearing loss probably already affects someone within your own family or circle of acquaintances. One out of 3 people over 65 has hearing loss. If more movie theaters were fully accessible, think about how enjoyable it would be for that person with hearing loss to be able to join other people in an outing to the theater instead of being left out.
4) Your ability to hear is a gift. Have compassion. You could lose it at any time.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/30/BAMJ1GJO6I.DTL#ixzz175LA8yP1
Feel free to add your own comment there, of course! (You'll need to register in order to do so.)
