Movie Theaters for the Blind

For years individuals who are blind that wanted to venture out to the movie theater would sound like a joke. Which is understandable, but in order to make a situation work sometimes you have to take some alternate steps. Those that were stricken from viewing a movie would take others along to explain what was happening on the big screen as they listened to the narrative soundtrack. It was a way to fit in to a situation that sounds comical when presented to others.

Over the years technology has somewhat changed that to give blind people an ingenious experience compared to the good old days. Which is whats going on in the Balkans Province. According to reports on Yahoo News by Ljilja Cvekic, Branko Matic created the cinema saying, "I got the idea a long time ago, when trying to enjoy some films with my wife." It is geared to accommodate 25,000 people who are blind and registered in the former Yugoslavia where the language is split between Serbian and Croatian or otherwise known as Serbo-Croat.

Cvekic also reported that the cinemas is full of tables and chairs with headphone access. The right earphone explains the movie in English dialogue and the left earphone explains the situations in Serbian. Its a way to hear the original movie and try to visual the events happening around the scenes. While this is definitely a step in the right direction there are still downfalls to this system. Obviously one of the biggest struggle is being able to concentrate on both voices understanding both languages and being able to comprehend everything. For example Cvekic quoted a young girl that said, "You have to concentrate really hard to experience it and I may not pay attention to every detail, but it's not so important what color a chair is or how flowers are arranged in a vase. I care about the people much more."

As everyone continues to adapt a new movie will be shown each month and they have plans to show the 100 top movies of all-time and give them to libraries for future reference. For those of you who are intrigued by innovations such as this or if you want to try and understand exactly how those that are blind deal with watching movies, then try it. Go out and rent a movie that you have never seen before and close your eyes throughout the entire movie and see how difficult it really is. I'm about to get started right now. Look for a future article as to how someone who is not blind initially tries to experience a movie as those who are blind.

Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070702/film_nm/blind_dc;_ylt=At1loD5l12EuJ0aT1HInXuxxFb8C