DAGSBORO, Del.- The Clayton Theatre is normally closed on Tuesdays during the winter months. But after learning that deaf community members were struggling to find captioned feature films, the theatre decided to open its doors.
Barbara White, of Ocean View, mentioned the issue to the theatre's owner, Joanne Howe. White said that despite recent advances in theatre technology, the deaf still prefer to have captioning right on the big screen.
"Deaf people tend not to like those glasses, they're very cumbersome. You have to adjust them constantly you have to watch the screen at the same time. You're reading the words so the open captioning is actually the best and more appropriate approach," White said.
Howe said it doesn't cost the theatre anything to display open captioning, so why not try it out.
"I just think it's a great opportunity to open up films to a segment of the population that doesn't normally get the opportunity to come out and see first-run movies so we're happy to do it," Howe said.
Tuesday night at 7 p.m. 30-40 community members - both deaf and hearing -came out to the Clayton Theatre to view "Only the Brave." Members of the Delaware Association of the Deaf and Delaware Deaf Senior Citizens of Sussex County were thrilled for the opportunity.
"I pass it [the theatre] several times a week. I look at it, but there's nothing been there for us because there's no captioning on the films. But tonight, finally, I'm going to be able to go in there and enjoy the theatre just like everyone else," Jay Innes said.
Howe said she hopes to have at least one open-captioned screening for each film they show at The Clayton Theatre.
