The last time I was at the movies, I asked about assistive listening devices or captioning services for deaf/hoh people. They busted out some old and dinky head phones. I wasn't sure what to think. I was hesitant. Because I didn't understand how they would help. The person did not know how they work. And I didn't like the idea of wearing used head phones. The person assured me that they have been cleaned.
No thanks.
Has anyone tried the head phones? How do they work? Are they helpful?
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They "work" in that they're better than nothing; like everything else in the HoH world, one's mileage varies. They are not always fully charged; I've had to get replacements in the middle of the movie. But they definitely help. You should request them every time you go, to encourage the management to take them seriously.
ReplyDeleteFor me, they don't work. I once used them at a movie theater with my brother and didn't even last halfway through the movie. I have enough of loss that headphones are just noise to me because I can't see words/face to understand it.
ReplyDeleteI always like to look at http://www.captionfish.com for captioned movies in the area. I am fortunate enough that I live in an area where there's a lot of captioned movies around.
LOL
ReplyDeleteYou're not the only one.
I used it twice. I had to see Twilight and then when New Moon came out, I HAD to see it. Cannot wait for it to come out on DVD and the open captioning wasn't scheduled for another week...and the closest open captioning available was two hours away...
Soo..I asked for that headset, the first time it didn't work. Still managed to understand the movie cuz I read the book. The theater worker didn't know how it worked. duh. Finally, I did some look up online and realized I needed to turn my hearing aids on telcoil and when I watched New Moon, it worked. It just amplifies sound and nothing more. It helped somewhat. I could watch without one and still make out many things anyway. Prefer captions, still.
As for whether they were cleaned? I doubt it. ;)
I once went to a musical, and saw that they had a booth set outside with the signature line going through an ear symbol, to show that they had ALD's for people with hearing loss. I went over to see if they had something that would help me. It was a set of earbuds (not even headphones!) that supposedly amplified the sound. Didn't do much good for me, though since I couldn't hear out of the earbuds :P
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to NYC and saw Mary Poppins (which was a bit ambitious- I had just gotten my CI turned on a few weeks before) and asked about assistance, we were able to get seats in the front as well as some sort of neckloop. For some reason, I could not get the neckloop to work with the T-coil of my hearing aid or CI, so it must have been faulty.
I wish everything was captioned!
So far, it seems as if captions are preferred over the head phones. I am not surprised.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'll try them one day, just to see how they work. Now, I am really curious.
Anon. is right-the more we request services or devices for the deaf and hoh, the more they will take us seriously.
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