To expand access to movie theaters in the country, the Brazilian Association of Multiplex Cinema Exhibiting Companies – ABRAPLEX promoted this Wednesday (10th), a special session of the film Monica's Gang - Ties for around 70 children and adolescents with visual and hearing impairments. The action took place in a cinema in the capital of São Paulo with the objective of presenting a new technology that gives free and real-time access to audio description, subtitles and Libras (Brazilian Sign Language), during the sessions.
The audience was made up of students from the Dorina Nowill Foundation, from the Anísio Teixeira and Crispiniano R schools, and athletes from the Brazilian Confederation of Sports for the Deaf (CBDS). “We are looking for viable and comprehensive alternatives that guarantee the right to culture. We are talking about a very significant portion of the population that, due to lack of access, still cannot include cinema as part of their entertainment. We want to change this reality”, highlights the president of ABRAPLEX, Marcos Barros.
ABRAPLEX's mission, with the initiative, is, therefore, to further democratize access to culture and entertainment, and to increase accessibility for people with visual and hearing impairments in all movie theaters in the country. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics – IBGE, there are more than 10 million deaf people in Brazil, about 600,000 people who are completely blind and another 6.5 million who have low vision.
In addition to being a desire of ABRAPLEX, it is foreseen in Normative Instruction n°128, of the National Cinema Agency – Ancine, to make cinemas more inclusive. And it is up to distributors and exhibitors to provide visual and auditory accessibility resources to the public. Law nº 13,146, of 2015, of the Statute of Persons with Disabilities, determines that, as of January 2, 2023, all exhibition halls must be adapted to provide visual and auditory accessibility features to people with disabilities in the sessions.
Technology - Considered intuitive and easy to navigate, the innovation tested at the event – an APP for smartphones – works as follows: the technology implemented recognizes the audio of the film and transforms it, in real time, into audio description, subtitles and Libras (Brazilian Sign Language). ). Thus, the user can choose the best option to accompany the feature on display.
In addition to cinemas, another advantage is that the functionality can be used to watch movies anywhere, including outside multiplexes. The application is free and has versions for Android and IOS.
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