Image Description: An illustration of an empty movie theatre. The screen is projecting the symbol for Closed Captioning.

People with disabilities are constantly facing accessibility issues. Whether that’s building access with wheelchair ramps, hearing accessibility and captions, audio translation for those with sight loss, these options are difficult to find. Ace Ratcliff, a writer and artist with POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardic Syndrome) and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, is a loud voice in the fight for open accessibility for all. They have started the hashtag #HellaInaccessible tag on Twitter in order to call attention to the inaccessible situations they encounter, especially as a wheelchair user. I had the opportunity to interview them and ask a few questions about how they got started with their activism and how others can be activists in their own communities.

What inspired you to start the #HellaInaccessible tag?

“I started using a wheelchair for major events about three years ago. I have a degenerative collagen disorder called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which causes my joints to dislocate very easily. I also have something called POTS – Postural Orthostatic Tachycardic Syndrome – which does a lot of funky things to my body, not least of which is making me pass out if I stand up for too long. I started the tag after realizing how absurdly inaccessible the world is to wheelchair users, even places that are labeled as being accessible really just… aren’t. “Hella” is a word that originated in the bay area, where I currently live. I love living here more than I can say, Oakland is an incredibly cool place, and joining the two to bring attention to the reality of inaccessibility just seemed too perfect. Also, I was running into inaccessibility so often, and people truly didn’t understand what that actually meant for the reality of trying to exist as a disabled person. I wanted to document it and show that the bay is an inclusive place in a lot of ways, but not 100%.”

How would you recommend people (disabled or otherwise) go about encouraging accessibility in their own communities?

“If I’ve learned anything, it’s that I was incredibly ignorant to the reality of inaccessibility until it became something that affected my existence on a daily basis. The world is made to be fully accessible for nondisabled people, and as someone who identified as nondisabled for the majority of my life, I can say firsthand that inaccessibility is something i never had to think about. Part of what’s important about documenting inaccessibility is showing nondisabled people how it actually affects our lives negatively. Without that documentation, that concrete evidence of, “Here! This is a damn issue!”, there’s no reason for them to care.”

How can people bring accessibility to their own businesses, restaurants, theatres, and communities?

“Be the squeaky wheel! If you run into an issue of inaccessibility, let the managers know. Let the owners know. Tweet about it. Post on social media. Write letters. Call your politicians. Do whatever you can to make sure that a change happens. You’d be amazed at how quickly things get changed when you post a strongly-worded yelp review, or escalate a complaint up to the acting manager.

This applies for new businesses, too! If you see somewhere that’s being built, reach out. Ask about accessibility. Ask about what’s being done to make the business inclusive. Sometimes nondisabled people need us to start the convos because – like i said before – it’s just not something they’re thinking about.”

How have you interpreted the response to #HellaInaccessible? Positive? Negative? Helpful?

“For the most part, it’s been overwhelmingly positive. People are often amazed at how terrible accessibility issues are, or glad that someone else is doing the work to highlight what’s actually going on in our communities. I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me and tell me that they’re noticing inaccessibility in a way that they never did before, tagging their own experiences with the tag, or sending me stories about the work they did to try to correct an issue they ran into. I honestly can’t think of one negative experience i’ve had so far!”

What are your hopes for the impact and/or the future of #HellaInaccessible?

“I can only hope that it gains more traction, more notice, and more propensity to affect change and make the world a more accessible place. That’s always the goal, with all my work!”

I was inspired by Ace’s work to do my own activism work in my home community. I have issues with hearing loss and auditory processing as a result of my CCD, so watching movies and TV shows is always difficult. More often than not, I use closed captions when I consume visual media, as a volume increase doesn’t always help with comprehension, and having hearing loss leads me to rely on visual aids (lip reading, gestures, facial expressions) to get through a conversation or to understand dialogue. For a while, I’ve been meaning to ask about accessibility at my local movie theatres, and only recently was I able to look into this. I figured it was a good place to start reaching out to make my community more accessible.

The first movie theatre I visited was my local Regal Cinemas, where I saw Christopher Robin with my friend. I actually remembered to ask about accessibility because they had a large poster prominently displayed in the lobby next to the ticket taker’s booth. After seeing that, I asked at the concessions stand about their audio accessibility, and I was told they had both audio assistance (a pair of headphones that delivered increased sound) or closed captions. I chose the captions because that’s my preferred method of accessibility. The staff member told the manager, who came out a few minutes later with a clipboard and asked for my signature and phone number and then, after showing me how they worked and turning them on, gave me a pair of glasses for the caption system. It took maybe five or ten minutes for me to get the glasses, and had we arrived for the movie earlier we would have made it on time. I didn’t have to pay any extra fees and the staff was all very friendly and helpful about it.

[Image Description: Two photos of the closed caption glasses. They are a wide pair of thin glasses with plastic frames designed to wrap around the head. They have a cord attached to the back of the legs and a wire running down to a separate piece of equipment.]

When we entered the theatre, I put on the glasses, which were like an oversized knockoff pair of Google Glass. They projected the captions in a small green box towards the bottom of the frames from two projectors on either side of the glasses. You could adjust the frames up and down to point the captions at the bottom or top of your viewing range, but you could not adjust the width of the legs. This was the only thing that bothered me because the glasses were quite wide – likely a “one-size-fits-all” deal. However, the captions were very helpful, as Christopher Robin was a rather quiet film with British actors, whose accents I often have trouble understanding. The captions only cut out once or twice, but overall held their own and even featured captions for the music and sound effects. Afterwards, when the movie finished, I returned the glasses to the concessions stand with no issues. Regal Cinemas: 5/5.

[Image Description: The author, Brianna, wearing the caption glasses.]

The next week I visited Franks Theatres, which is a relatively new movie theatre in my hometown. My mother and I went to see Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again, which I was very excited to see, being a huge ABBA fan.

When I arrived at the theatre, they did not have any signs promoting their movie accessibility – in fact, there weren’t even any people working the ticket stand – we ended up using the online kiosk. This may be due to the time of day, but it was 7:30 on a Tuesday, which I thought was unusual.

There was only one person working the concessions stand, who I asked about their caption program or audio accessibility. She told me the only option they had was headphones, so I took it. She told her other supervisor, who got them for me and simply handed them to me. I had to catch him and ask him how they worked, and he came back and turned them on for me. Both of the managers didn’t seem very encouraged about helping me, so we went into the theatre. I put the headphones on and it took me a minute to figure out how they worked in the dark – I needed to turn up the volume for myself. They were a pair of dark green headphones with a signal on top and a volume button on the side. The headphones projected some of the opening advertisements and the movie in full. However, I did not find them helpful. There was a split-second delay from the theatre’s surround sound to the headphones, and I could hear both of them because the surround sound was so loud. The headphones were also a little staticy in higher-pitched voices, and merely provided a louder and closer production of sound than the surround sound. I ended up taking them off for most of the musical numbers and sometimes replacing them for the quieter dialogue, but the surround sound provided clearer dialogue than the headphones, which simply made the sound louder. Considering there was both singing and many people with European accents in this movie, captions would have been more helpful in this instance, especially since the surround sound was already quite loud. I do appreciate that they had the headphones, which would have been better for a quieter movie or for someone with more hearing loss than auditory processing issues. However, I wish they had caption options for me and for other people that are fully deaf.

Franks Theatres: 2/5.

[Image Description: A photo of Brianna wearing the hearing assistance headphones. They are made of green plastic. She is smiling and flashing a peace sign at the camera.]

These were the only two theatres I was able to visit, but they revealed a lot. Though Franks Theatres is often regarded in my hometown as the “better” movie theatre, I was disappointed by their lack of accessible features for their movies. Regal Cinemas did a much better job – they openly advertised their multiple accessibility features and it was not difficult to use them. I appreciated the options and the employees were very welcoming about my request. I now know what I want from my movie theatres in terms of accessibility – it is not just about equipment that makes the sound louder. It’s about having different options for different people as well as being open about the accessibility options provided. I know my requests and my article are small actions, but we can all remember that our activism is part of a bigger movement to make the world better for everyone. I hope you guys find hope in Ace’s work and my work to examine your own communities. Whether you have a disability or not, I encourage you to go out and drive forward some change to make your own towns more disability friendly.

You can follow Ace on Twitter at @MortuaryReport and check out #HellaInaccessible on Twitter for more posts!