Captioning available at Bangor cinemas

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BANGOR – Going to the movies without Mom and Dad is a rite of passage for young teens and preteens, opening up a new and exciting social realm.

It’s no different for Taylor Markie, 14, of Brewer. But because Taylor is profoundly deaf, suffering from neurosensory loss, going to the movies presents problems.

Beginning this week, Taylor can go to Bangor Mall Cinemas 10 on Stillwater Avenue and, in one auditorium, sit anywhere she wants and see the film dialogue captioned on a small screen attached to her seat.

The installation of the new equipment – the first in northern and eastern Maine – has been a long time coming, but represents a solution hailed by advocates of the disabled and by the theater that paid for the upgrade.

A visit to the cinema on June 29, 2004, led to the installation of the captioning equipment. Taylor, her friend and her mother went to see “Garfield” at the Bangor Mall Cinemas 10. The girl’s mother, Michelle Markie, asked at the counter whether the cinema would provide captioning for Taylor. The manager offered headsets, but Markie explained that would not help, because the girl’s deafness is so profound as to make even the headset useless.

Six months later, with the assistance of the Disability Rights Center of Maine, Markie filed a complaint on her daughter’s behalf against the theater with the Maine Human Rights Commission. The complaint charged the cinema with failing to make a reasonable accommodation for hearing-impaired patrons. The Maine Human Rights Act and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act require businesses to make reasonable accommodations to give those with disabilities.

The rub, though, is what is defined as a “reasonable” accommodation.

The theater initially claimed that providing the captioning equipment at a cost of about $15,000 would be an undue hardship. An investigator for the rights commission disagreed and recommended the panel find in Markie’s favor.

The commission set aside the complaint as Markie, the Disability Rights Center and Bangor Mall Cinemas 10 – which was purchased by the Boston Culinary Group after the complaint was filed – negotiated a settlement, which was made final this week.

Markie said Thursday the settlement was important for her daughter, but also for all hearing-impaired people in the area.

Going to the movies has been an important part of Taylor’s life.

“That’s what kids do at that age,” she said.

In the past, Taylor would watch the movie, “and I would sign for her,” Markie explained. “We would need to sit close to the aisle because there’s small lights on the walls,” giving enough illumination for Taylor to see her mother’s hands.

When she was younger, Taylor would have to see a movie two or three times to get the sense of it, her mother said. At home, DVDs and television provided captioning for her.

“We rent movies pretty much on a weekly basis. But when you get to [age] 10 or 12, you don’t want to go to the movies with your mom,” Markie said.

Mother and daughter had seen the captioning device at a movie theater in Worcester, Mass., while visiting family, and wondered why the technology was not available here.

“It’s hard being a teenager in general, and it’s especially hard being deaf,” Markie said, so the equipment will remove one obstacle for Taylor.

On Wednesday, Donald Pete, general manager of Bangor Mall Cinemas 10, demonstrated the equipment, which is surprisingly low-tech.

An electronic marquee just below the projection room, featuring LED “red dot” letters, displays the film dialogue in reverse. The theater makes up to five reflector devices available to patrons.

A hearing-impaired person chooses a seat, inserts the bottom of the device into a seat’s cup holder, and bends the 20-inch-long plastic goose-neck arm until the tinted rectangular Plexiglas reflector, about 3 inches by 14 inches, reflects the words.

The reflector device can be manipulated so it sits just below the screen in one’s line-of-sight, thereby requiring the slightest move of the eyes to see the words, much like watching a subtitled movie.

Pete said most new movies, in 35 mm print format, arrive with a special DVD with the captioned dialogue. The expensive part of the equipment is the computer device that displays the words in synchronization with the movie.

Just one auditorium features the device, Pete said, but a new film will be shown there each Friday. “The Nativity” began showing Friday.

Chad Hansen, an attorney with the Disability Rights Center in Augusta, said Thursday the settlement was significant.

Just as public buildings must be accessible to people using wheelchairs, “this is an access issue, too,” he said.

Hansen believes the theater will recoup its one-time investment for the equipment.

“In the Bangor area, there’s a large population of people who are deaf. Businesswise, it makes sense,” he said, because hearing-impaired people likely will attend movies with friends. There are also tax advantages to adding the equipment, he said.

Markie echoed Hansen’s assessment.

“It’s not just for [Taylor]. I think a lot of people are going to use this,” she said, such as an area deaf club and a Kenduskeag summer camp for deaf children.