accessibility

The Friends of Greenbelt Theatre has a mission to be a hub for film in Prince George’s County, and we believe this means making the movies accessible to all, both financially and for patrons with various assistive needs. We are a fully ADA-compliant cinema with a variety of assistive devices; closed captioning and descriptive video service devices are available for most screenings, and we provide a weekly open captioned screening (if available from the distributor) for our weekly first-run feature.

Open captioning means words show on the screen and everyone can see them. It’s similar to subtitles for films in a language other than English, however open captioning also includes words that describe relevant sounds in the movie. Our Sunday matinee is usually Open Captioned (if available from distributor), but check our calendar and look for the OC designation in the showtime for the weekly OC screening.

Closed captioning can only be seen by using a special device that can be requested at our concessions counter. Not everyone can see the captions, only the people using the device. In our main auditorium, we provide closed captioning through Rear Window Captioning (RWC). Our Pop-up uses infrared technology to deliver the captions.

DVS is a descriptive audio recording that provides a verbal description of visual elements in a film for patrons with visual impairments. This device, available to borrow at Concessions, is worn around the neck and used with headphones (provided). To find out if a film offers DVS, go to our calendar, then click the title of the film.

Assistive listening devices help people who are hard of hearing amplify the audio of a film. There are two assistive kinds of listening devices available to borrow at Concessions:

• For people who do NOT use a hearing aid: the device increases the volume of the film just for you. You wear it around your neck and use headphones to hear the sound.
• For people who DO use a hearing aid: wear the device around your neck and click the T switch on your hearing aid. The T-switch blocks out environmental sounds and so you can tune in specifically to the audio from the film.

OC, CC, and DVS features are added by the studios, so Greenbelt Cinema does not have control over which films are and are not captioned. Most first-run features from major studios have captions. But many older films or independent films are not available with captions. Go to our calendar, then click the film title to see whether OC, CC, or DVS is available for that film.