Applause! Applause! for Open Captioning

For years, theaters have had special performances with sign language interpreters. This has been wonderful for the deaf who sign, but it always ignored the approximately 98% of the 28 million Americans who are hard-of-hearing or deaf and do not sign.

Finally, the Orange County Performing Arts Center has recognized the value of open captioning with its July 6 performance of “Saturday Night Fever.”

Since open captioning can benefit both the deaf and hard of hearing, there should be more open captioning performances. For the first time in my life I actually “heard” a Broadway show rather than follow the story line.

My heartfelt thanks to Larry Stotz, Performing Arts Center accessibility coordinator, for recognizing that the needs of the hard-of-hearing and nonsigning deaf are extremely important. I will look forward to attending future productions and hope other theater venues follow the Performing Arts Center’s outstanding lead.

Robin-Marlena Itzler

Cypress