Wednesday 24 June 2015

A rant about my local Cinema company

I wanted to write a blog post to express my deepest disappointment for my local cinema, Cineworld. 

It frustrates me so much, words cannot describe about their lack of subtitled screenings. I was looking through the films on my phone last night, carefully selecting each box saying 'subtitled' just to see whether there were any screenings.... No there wasn't. See below for what it looked like for each film I looked at:


I have contacted them a number of times via Twitter regarding this. Each time I haven't got anywhere with them.
I have sent a complaint last night... I doubt that will go anywhere.

I don't just want more subtitled screenings for my area. I'm speaking on behalf of all the people who want to go to the cinema but can't, because of the lack of subtitles.

I'm afraid to say, this is discrimination. The Disability Discrimination Act, clearly states that public services should make 'reasonable adjustments' in order to make their services fully accessible for all. Not just cinemas, but other organisations tend to believe that they are fully accessible and inclusive just because they have installed a few ramps here and there. NO. What about the hearing impaired?

I appreciate Cineworld have considered Audio described screenings. I haven't looked into this, but I'm sure there are limited screenings for that too.
I'm horrified by the lack of subtitles. Not only does it make me angry, it really does upset me. The number of times I miss out on films that I want to see. 
Because of this, I can't be a 'normal friend' and see a film with my best friends and I can't be a 'normal girlfriend' and see a film with my boyfriend 'S'. It is SO  UNFAIR! 

There should be screenings EVERYDAY for EVERY film. Not just one screening  e.g. 11:00 in the morning. There should be options to choose from. We should be able to have a choice to make what screenings we want to see. Even if there was a subtitled screening, it shouldn't be the case of "we better get to the cinema for 11:00 as that is the only subtitled screening!!", it should be "we have a choice, there are subtitled screenings at 11:00, 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00!" Something like that. 

This is not just benefiting people like myself, Cineworld and other cinema organisations would benefit from this too! If their cinema was made more accessible, this would attract more customers like myself (I would probably come on a weekly basis, or every other week!). There would be an increase in custom because it would be an inclusive cinema!

Sorry for my constant moaning everyone. I'm just deeply disappointed. Luckily, the Action on Hearing Loss regional winner (East/Midlands) for passion in action will not give up! I will take my complaint further. Hearing impaired/deaf individuals should no longer feel like 2nd class citizens (some of us do!). I won't give up!

If any cinema organisation is reading this... Take note!   

Saturday 20 June 2015

A trip to the public hairdressers!

As I promised, I would write this post about my trip to the hairdressers.

Pretty much all my life we've had family appointments to the hairdressers and driven out to this lady's house to cut our hair (she has a cabin in her garden). Before her, we had a mobile hairdresser come to our house. It wasn't until recently that I struggled to get an appointment (me being a girl I really needed my roots touching up! - Yep, I'm not a natural blonde I'm afraid!) So yeah, I'm quite impatient and couldn't wait 4 weeks, so I booked an appointment at the local hairdressers.

I'm not too keen on public hairdressers. I don't hate them, I'm just not used to the environment and find it hard to hear sometimes. It is completely different from my own house or the cabin in our hairdresser's garden! This time I went by myself as my Mum was working. I know that sounds really bad as I'm 20 years old and rely on Mum. I have to be honest, my confidence going to new environments is quite low. I often rely on my Mum, my boyfriend or my friends to come with me and help me out with something. This time I had to go by myself.

Luckily for me, the guy who cut and coloured my hair happened to have a brother who was deaf! Brilliant! It was difficult at some points to have a conversation, because obviously he was behind me and I had to look in the mirror to lip read him. It is actually quite difficult from a distance.  Especially as he often walked out of view of the mirror. Also, I was sat right by the door and because it was a hot day, they propped the door open. The hairdressers was also situated by a busy road. As you can imagine, every time a car drove past...ahhhh!  Haha!

Apart from all of that, it was generally ok and not so daunting as what I thought it would be. I would definitely go back in future and book the guy who did my hair that day! I'm very happy with it too :-)

I just wanted to write this post to raise awareness of how difficult and daunting it can be for a severely deaf individual to do simple things, such as going to the hairdressers. I rely a lot on other people most occasions, I know as a 20 year old people would judge me for that, but I am improving in confidence. Two great examples, are going to the hairdressers by myself and having the confidence to explain my hearing to them and travelling on public transport by myself now which is difficult at points (train announcements, buses etc.) It will take time for my confidence to develop, but I will get there one day!

Has anyone had any similar experiences? :-)

 

Tuesday 2 June 2015

My day trip to the zoo!

I thought it would be nice to write about one of my days out with my boyfriend last week.

I have not been to the zoo for years, so as you can imagine, I was quite excited myself! I love the zoo. It is a shame that I do not go as often as I would like. So here we are...

As it happens, at the moment I am writing an essay at University about "accessibility to zoos for pupils in education with a hearing impairment" (my chosen topic). Basically, I am writing a research proposal (I do not actually carry it out though!). So this visit came in good time! Anyway... you won't want me babbling on about my BORING University work. So ignore that!

I thought it would be nice to write about how my experience as a severely deaf individual was...
I was actually very impressed!
I'm not 100% sure if there was vocal announcements, I don't think so!
I was very impressed particularly because pretty much everything was visual. There was a lot of signage which was great!
My boyfriend has been to the zoo a few times this year, so I'm sure he was familiar with his surroundings and knew where most things were... we still relied on the map though!

As a severely deaf individual I am very reliant on my eyes, I can easily get distracted visually by different things around me! I found myself reading a lot of the signage on the walls and around the zoo! It was so interesting!

I loved each area of the zoo and how in most areas, facts about each animal was written on the wall for visitors to read. I wonder if my boyfriend got frustrated at me for stopping all the time to read things! Haha! He was excited himself, bless him!

I must admit, due to it being half term, the zoo was PACKED! It was a shame because there were so many people about! But it was still a lovely day! We fed a giraffe, goats and an elephant too, so I was happy! Haha!

I don't think I could fault the day in terms of accessibility for one like myself. I was generally pleased.