Rear Window® Captioning and DVS Theatrical®, developed by The Media Access Group at WGBH, make theaters accessible to audiences with disabilities. This site provides information to consumers, industry members and others interested in learning more about motion picture access. View background information about these systems and the Media Access Group's efforts in this area.
WGBH's Media Access Group has worked closely with Rear Window Captioning Reflector manufacturer Boston Light & Sound and with Multi™ Design for People, an industrial design firm specializing in inclusive built environments, products and information graphics, to update the look, feel and performance of the Rear Window Reflector. This new design utilizes components that have become available since the original reflector was designed more than a decade ago. After focus group testing and manufacturing, they are now ready to go. Read more about the updated reflector design (6MB PDF). Theater chains and individuals can contact Boston Light & Sound (617 787-3131) for pricing information and to order reflectors.
Many people are familiar with closed captioning, the means by which the dialogue and sound effects of a film or television program are made visible via on-screen text. However, description, for viewers who are blind or have low vision, is less familiar. Description conveys the key visual aspects of a film or television program by describing scenery, facial expressions, costumes during natural pauses in dialogue. Listen to a clip of Disney's The Lion King with descriptive narration created by the The Media Access Group at WGBH. Because people who are deaf or hard of hearing have few opportunities to "experience" description, this clip also has closed captioning. The Lion King demonstration.
The big-screen adaptation of the classic story about an elephant who hears a voice on a tiny speck of dust, and protects that speck until he can convince everyone in his world that they're truly there, arrives in MoPix-equipped theaters on March 14, 2008. The film's distributor, Twentieth Century Fox Films, gave WGBH permission to caption and describe the film's trailer to promote the potential of closed captioning and audio description in theaters as a literacy tool for movie fans of all ages. That learning can also be fun was not a lesson lost on Dr. Seuss! Watch the Horton Hears a Who demonstration.
