Pioneer Press

May 8, 2003


    Crown Theatres to offer narration for blind, deaf

    BY LYNNE STIEFEL

STAFF WRITER

    Glenview residents Glenn and Julie Wiemer sit as far away as
possible from other people when they go to most movie theaters.

    That's because Julie Wiemer must describe to her husband, who is
blind, what's going on when the actors aren't talking.

    "She tries to whisper to me," Glenn Wiemer, a teacher at Washburne
School in Winnetka, said.

    There is a better way for the blind or visually impaired and the
deaf or hard-of-hearing to enjoy first-run movies, although the
technology has only recently been available at three theaters in the
Chicago area -- two in the city and one in Lombard.

    Now OliverMcMillan, developer of The Glen Town Center, has agreed to
install the two technologies, called descriptive video and rear
captioning, at the Crown Theatres it is building on the site of the
former Hangar One.

    Thomas Decker, director of special projects for Connecticut-based
Crown Theatres, stressed the systems will initially be used on a test
basis, primarily because the motion picture industry has not yet
embraced any one form of equipment as the standard.

    "Until it is universally accepted, there's always a little bit of
controversy," Decker said. "But we want to make a right decision, as a
good corporate decision and as a business decision. If there's clientele
we're not touching, it would be silly of us not to put it in."

    The systems run through the same device, which costs about $15,000.
Initially, OliverMcMillan will probably equip four of the 10 auditoriums
to run the device, with plans to rotate two devices among the four
equipped auditoriums. That way, if a movie runs for several weeks, the
device can be moved during the extended run to be available for a
different movie.

    The rear, or open, captioning system displays reversed captions on a
light-emitting diode text display that can be accessed from anywhere in
the theater by patrons.

    The descriptive video system provides narrated descriptions of key
visual elements during pauses in the soundtrack. A blind or visually
impaired person hears the narration through a wireless set of
headphones.

    The descriptive narrative explains what is happening when the sound
track includes only explosions or music. As an example, this is the
narrative for a scene from "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"

    "Dudley pushes Harry down and presses against the glass. As Harry
glares, the glass disappears. Dudley promptly falls in the cage's pool
of water. The python moves its thick body over the railing and slithers
out, flicking its tongue at Harry as it passes."

    And that's what Glenn Wiemer would hear through headphones.

    "See how much more it enables a blind person to enjoy what's going
on, without bothering his neighbors?" he said. "I can sit anywhere in an
equipped theater and (the headphones) will pick it up. It's such a more
enjoyable experience."

    Wiemer, the father of 22-year-old twins, lives in the Glenview house
in which he grew up. A teacher at Washburne for 28 years, he
progressively lost his eyesight until 1990, when he became blind.

    After hearing Crown Theatres would manage 10 screens at The Glen
Town Center, he suggested to Don Owen, Glenview's director of
redevelopment, that the technologies benefiting the disabled be
explored. Owen then lobbied Paul Buss, OliverMcMillan's chief
development officer, who was quick to agree.

    "I think they all realize it's not going to be a huge sales boon.
There aren't that many people and there aren't that many films, so it
won't have that big of an income effect," Owen said.

    "But I think the public relations and marketing effect of being able
to say they have it will be a benefit," Owen added. "For all those good
reasons, from the business side of the house, they said, sure we can do
this."

    Decker said the systems have been well accepted by patrons at
Crown's Minneapolis theaters, although the number of films produced and
distributed with the formats is fairly limited.

    "We're doing it because it's not only a good business decision, but
it's the right thing to do."


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