» My wife and I attended “Dancing with St … deafologue

Tayler

10:26:42 am on February 22, 2008 | 1,187 views

My wife and I attended “Dancing with Stars” last fall with two friends. We had terrible seats and could not see the dancing floor unless we stood–and we weren’t allowed to. For those seated in our area, a television hung from the ceiling. Of course this wasn’t captioned.

There were plenty of empty seats on the first floor directly facing the dancing floor. I politely let the usher know that I could not hear nor see the show and pointed to the first floor area. He said he couldn’t move us and motioned us to sit.

Now that Marlee Matlin is on “Dancing with Stars”, I hope she will ensure the studio is accommodating to the deaf people that come to see her on the show.

Comments

Paul Moreau 10:36 am on February 22, 2008 | #

That had to suck. At least it was free even though it was a bad experience.

Anyway, it should be interesting to see if there are any changes this season for the live audience. Hopefully for the better and more accommodating for the deaf and the others with special needs.

It wouldn’t hurt to turn on the realtime captioning. They do air the show live on air, right? If so, then they should had turned the CC on.

It’s just a pity how difficult it can be to get some access sometimes.
Tayler 10:45 am on February 22, 2008 | #

My wife and I just had a brief discussion about this. She is a lawyer. She said it’s “unreasonable to ask her (Marlee Matlin) to change procedure when it’s not illegal.”

She’s right–however it would show goodwill on the studio’s part. Goodwill.

The time we were there may have been the show’s first time they had a deaf audience. We were ushered in at the last minute, so they were running along at the last minute. This means education all over again. The endless battle.

With Matlin on the show, education should be much much easier, no?
todoslavie 10:56 am on February 22, 2008 | #

Hey I didn’t know you went to dancing with the stars! Cool!
Paul Moreau 10:57 am on February 22, 2008 | #

It should be. I remember how they captioned all of the special features on the DVD for the movie, “The Family Stone.” Fox rarely caption the bonus features, but I suspect they were asked to since one of the actors in the movie is deaf.

Tyrone Giordano, you may have seen him in that movie. He was also in the movie, “A Lot Like Love” with Ashton Kutcher. I’m not sure, but I think he’s in the new movie with Diane Lane, “Untraceable.” I can’t say what kind of role he has in it though.

After that, they continued the trend of not captioning the special features. :-/
Tayler 10:58 am on February 22, 2008 | #

todoslavie–as a Los Angeles resident yourself, have you been to a show? If so, how accommodating was it?
Tayler 11:00 am on February 22, 2008 | #

@Paul Moreau I attended the premiere of “The Family Stone” which was 5 blocks from home. LOL. Marlee Matlin sat in the row front of us. She kindly introduced herself. Little did I know she would be a star on “Dancing with the Stars”

The premiere theater was accommodating! The film was closed captioned and were provided rear window visors. Hope this is replicated with Matlin’s edition of “Dancing with the Stars”.
jackjason 5:49 pm on February 23, 2008 | #

Hi it’s Jack Jason, Marlee Matlin’s producing partner and interpreter. I’d love to respond to your points here and explain the current situation for Dancing With the Stars. It is a situation that is pretty much standard for all TV tapings in the Los Angeles area.

Seats at all tapings are open to the general public but on a first come, first serve basis. For Dancing With the Stars, people wait normally for days in line just for tickets. Other tickets are given to VIP guests of ABC and BBC Productions. The VIP seats are often reserved on the first floor.

In TV tapings where Deaf audience are seated, DWTS has informed me that they will make the best efforts to seat them where there are the best sight lines. If there is no sight line available, then a monitor is provided (this is the same for hearing audiences). It is standard in Los Angeles film production where there is a studio audience seated to provide space for a sign language interpreter.

As far as captioning the monitors, the closed captioning is done at the network end and not at the studio where the show is filmed. The signal is sent directly from the stage to the network via satellite and network then lays down the captions and sends the signal up to the satellite for broadcast across the country. The monitors that are seen in the studio are only direct feeds from the cameras; unfortunately, there are no captioning facilities there. Rear Window captioning is also not an option because the show is broadcast live (RWC is done in advance and am not aware of RWC taking place for live performances) and the studio configuration (horse shoe shaped space with no “rear wall” would not be able to accomodate RWC.)

I will be providing sign language interpreting for Marlee on stage but unfortunately, I may not be visible to Deaf audience members. So, when requesting tickets for the show from either Dancing With the Stars or ABC, you should also request accomodation with a sign language interpreter. I am not sure if the studio will provide it or if it is your responsibility to provide your own interpreters. I would think they would and I could certainly make them aware that there are Deaf Community members who would like to attend tapings.

We, on Marlee’s end, will do as much educating as possible about the needs of Deaf audience members. Unfortunately, because we are not producing the show we can certainly make them aware of equal access but it’s up to you as audience members to request it. We agree with you that it’s extremely important that they understand that Deaf people visiting Los Angeles may want to see a taping and the importance of communication access. We will do our best to pass along your concerns to them but encourage you to work on advocacy on your end.

If you happen to come to the show and are fortunate to sit in the audience, make sure to clap loudly. A hands waving applause is great but the louder the response is to Marlee’s performance, the more votes she’ll receive from the hearing viewers. Marlee would love to hear your applause too as she has hearing with her new digital aids. If you want your applause to be “seen” then clap loudly with your hands above your heads! She would love that. The louder the better!

We hope this answers your questions concerns. If you have any more comments, you can feel free to visit Marlee’s MySpace.com page. The URL is:

myspace.com/marleematlinrealdeal

Thank you.

Best,
Jack Jason
Solo One Productions
Tayler 6:55 pm on February 23, 2008 | #

Thanks Jack for responding. I don’t mean to imply that Marlee is or was responsible for the not-so-good experience I had at DWTS, nor should anyone else attending any televised shows anywhere think so. As I signed, I praised her increased visibility and exposure in television as being beneficial to deaf people of all kinds.

It’s harder in live shows to make last minute accommodations. Because Marlee has worked so hard to deserve respect as an actress, your attempt to educate them will go a long way.

If my wife and I attend Marlee’s show, we’ll try to request accommodations in advance. In any case, I send my congratulations to Marlee Matlin for her continued achievements. And we’ll be sure to clap as loudly as we can!
Jonologue 11:25 pm on February 24, 2008 | #

I tried to image if I were in your shoe!

Play Video
Comment »
Tayler 9:22 am on February 25, 2008 | #

Jon, that’s the best video comment I’ve seen! It says A LOT without words!!
todoslavie 12:59 pm on March 6, 2008 | #

LOL - Jonologue? How about me at Todoslavologue?

No, I’ve not been to any taping here. As you can see, Tayler, I tend to wiggle in my seat.
DeafRoger 1:13 pm on March 6, 2008 | #

I have a fear of attending tv shoots like those..

I rem0ember when I was a kid I saw Americans Funniest Video where Bob Saget just paraded right over to a bunch of Deafies in the back row and went “Hello! You’re Deaf! America, isnt this cool?!”

And the Deafies just smiled and waved.. they were nice Deafies..

But if it was me, I would’ve been mortified beyond belief and die from embarassement.. yeah thats me :p

So there will be no attending Dancing with Stars for me..

Cheers!
Roger