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Currently available in the US and Canada[1], the rear window captioning system was developed by WGBH and Rufus Butler Seder in 1997. Rear window captioning, or RWC, is an ingenious technology that provides closed captioning to deaf or hard-of-hearing movie theater patrons in a way that is more economical than open captioning or subtitling, has zero impact on the film print and is less intrusive to the experience of the general theater audience.
In the past, deaf movie fans have had the following options:
- Wait for the film to come out on DVD/VHS with closed captions and watch it at home.
- See a special open-captioned screening. In open captioning, one reel has captions laser-cut onto the print and then it is traveled around the country, where it is shown in limited locations for only a few days.
- Attend a special screening with American Sign Language interpreters standing up front.
How RWC works: At the movie theater, you pick up a transparent acrylic panel at the front desk. You take it to your seat (and you can sit anywhere,) and insert the end in the cup holder of your seat. At the back of the theater, under the projection window, is a LED text mount installed on the wall. The captions are displayed backwards on the LED mount. The acrylic panel which you have at your seat is attached to a flexible metal “arm” that you adjust until the panel reflects the LED text, which you read while simultaneously watching the film. The captions are distributed on a CD-ROM that is installed in a computer that plays the captions in sync with the movie.
[1] As far as I know, RWC is currently only available in the US and Canada. In Canada, it is available in all the provinces except for Quebec due to bilingual (French/English) issues. I think RWC might be available in the UK, but I could not find any evidence. If RWC is available elsewhere, please let me know.
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