With awards season almost at its climax, and the Oscars less than two weeks away, the world of cinema is a buzz with anticipation to see the latest ‘Hollywood blockbusters’ and ‘indie darlings’.

But for those living with sight and hearing impairment, a trip to the cinema can be an exercise in frustration, and disappointment.

Though the success and subsequent bounty of films on Netflix and Amazon Prime has given rise to a new culture of film watching at home, the cinema remains the place to catch the most current films in their greatest splendour... sometimes.

Nyle DiMarco, winner of America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars, has stoked debate on twitter over the lack of inclusiveness in American cinemas.

After growing frustrated at AMI cinemas closed captioning device during a showing of Black Panther, the model tweeted a picture of the device with the text “RT if you prefer open captioning instead of this” before walking out. The tweet has been shared by nearly five thousand users.

In a series of tweets Mr DiMarco described how the experience made him feel "so disabled" when the "awful" captioning device on offer "kept skipping lines" and "missing scenes".

The closed caption device displays subtitles to individual cinema goers via a boxed device and are common in America as an alternative to open captions in which subtitles are displayed on the film screen.

The device (as pictured) obscures much of the frame and, according to several hundred twitter users, are often faulty, showing inaccurate lines of dialogue, missing others, and on occasion showing the entirely wrong subtitles for another film.

Though the devices are not common in Britain, Deaf and British twitter users were quick to bemoan the lack of film screenings featuring open captioning.For those who are deaf, hard of hearing, or just prefer to watch cinema with subtitles, Yourlocalcinema.com can provide a schedule of upcoming subtitled films in your area.

What's your opinion? Is enough being done to ensure the cinema can be enjoyed by all? Would the cinema experience really be diminished by the inclusion of subtitles?

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