Special screenings for the hearing-impaired welcome

From: News-Leader.com - Springfield,MO,USA - Mar 6, 2006

A big sign language "I love you" symbol to Campbell 16 Cine for hosting closed-captioned, big-screen movies for deaf and hearing-impaired citizens in the area!

The theater first showed "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," then "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" on Feb. 26. Deaf and hard-of-hearing people and their families flocked to the viewings to immense kudos.

DeLinda Belanger of Springfield, who is legally deaf but has had some hearing since birth, brought her hearing daughter to the movie. "It was so great to be able to hear the sounds of the movie and be able to see the words the actors were saying, and on the big screen," Belanger said. She and daughter Courtney, 6, have been restricting their movie viewing mostly to home DVDs, usually months after their theater releases, because there was no way for Mom to understand dialogue in a regular theater. Her praise of the new, theater-sized screen adventure was effusive: "I said, 'Yes! Finally!'"

Campbell 16 doesn't have anything monetarily to gain from the captioned movies. What it's earned, however, is grateful recognition from a community which values inclusion — because it's the right thing to do.

© 2006 Springfield News-Leader.