THE pioneering program Movies for the Blind and Deaf of SM Prime Inc. continues to break new ground in the inclusivity of People with Disabilities (PWDs) with the project expansion to other SM malls all over the country and the implementation of closed captioning not only in the movies but also in television.
During the re-launch of SM Cares’ Movies for the Deaf and Blind project at SM City North Edsa over the weekend, Engr. Bien Mateo, Project Director of the SM Cares’ Program on PWDs, said they have expanded the special movie screenings to include more malls all over the country. He said they offer movies for the deaf and blind every first Tuesday every month for free in participating malls.
“We offer these movies for free once every month and schedule it in a different participating mall every month to enable our visually impaired and hard of hearing in other areas to enjoy the movies,” Mateo said.
Hundreds of elementary and high school visually-impaired and hard of hearing students from the Philippine School for the Deaf, Philippine School for the Blind, and Dagat-dagatan Elementary School in Navotas City enjoyed the retrofitted Beauty and the Beast movie produced by Disney.
The movie had closed caption and audio descriptive features which enabled the students to enjoy the movie. The event was held in partnership with the Movie Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) and the Deaf Blind Support Philippines (DBSP).
MTRCB Chairman Rachel Arenas, who was present during the event, said that the project has inspired the enactment into law of RA 10905 or the Closed Caption Law.
Arenas said the law, which was signed into law last year, requires all television station owners to provide closed captioning in all their television shows. However due to budgetary requirements, Arenas said television station owners asked for a period of 5 years or until 2021 to comply with the law.
“Personally I’d like to implement the law the soonest possible time which is the reason why I would exert all effort so the public would not wait for five years before our PWDs and senior citizens enjoy their favorite television shows through the closed captioning feature,” Arenas pointed out.
But the Movies for the Deaf and Blind project may further open up inclusion of PWDs with the assertion of DBSP President Edgardo Garcia that they will not stop at closed captioning of television shows but also audio description of Filipino movies.
“Many of our members would also like to experience watching local films because they can relate to such films more but we still have to do that on our local movies. That is the next move we will be pursue audio description and closed captioning in Filipino movies,” Garcia said.
He said DBSP will seek legislation to require all locally-made films to include audio description and closed captioning in their production in order to make film-making inclusive not only for PWDs but to the elderly as well.
Mateo said SM will continue to innovate its services in order to fully integrate everyone in the mall experience.
SM Cares is the CSR arm of SM Prime Holdings, Inc. Its advocacies include Programs on Persons with Disabilities, Children and Youth, Women and Breastfeeding Mothers, Environment Sustainability, Senior Citizens, Social Entrepreneurship and Overseas Filipino Workers (SM Global Pinoy).
As a responsible integrated property developer, SM ensures that its CSR programs serve as a catalyst for positive change for the community that it serves.
