Movie captions: what are your options?
For New Zealanders with hearing loss, including children, there are more opportunities to see a movie on the big screen.
Closed captions
Systems such as CaptiView show text on a small screen that fits into the cup-holder on the cinema seat. You watch the big screen and follow the captions on the little screen. Learn about CaptiView.
Closed captions: which cinemas?
Some Hoyts and Reading cinemas offer CaptiView.
Reading Cinemas put ‘CCAP’ beside the sessions where the devices are available. See Hoyts for closed caption sessions.
Open captions
Like subtitles on foreign films, everyone sees the captions. Selected cinemas offer this.
See Captioning Access NZ for details of what′s on and where. You can sign up for a regular email listing of captioned movies. Also see Captioned Movies NZ on Facebook.
Phone apps
These include iPhone’s Subtitles. Subtitles play on your smartphone while you are in the cinema, as long as the movie is in the app’s library and you are connected to the internet.
Private screenings
Invite your friends who are Deaf or hard of hearing, or learning English (captions are great for second-language English speakers too), for a private screening at an open caption cinema.
Captioning Access NZ can help book the cinema and negotiate the best price, then you sell the tickets – for a fundraiser, a charity screening, or just because you want to have a party.