To the editor:

In Lawrence, Southwind theater is part of the Regal chain of movie theaters and has two captioning devices available for those of us with hearing loss: glasses or a small adjustable screen that fits in the cup holder. I did not know this until I attended the Hearing Loss Association of America convention in St. Louis this year, and Randy Smith, senior vice president of the Regal Entertainment Group received the National Access Award.

After returning home, I went to a movie performance at Southwind, and the system with the screen was easy to use and worked very well for me. I was surprised a week or so later to be in Salina, and their Art Cinema had the same device.

After years of trying to understand in movies and getting most of the information from someone else who was with me or then not going to movies at all unless it was a foreign film with open captioning, I finally felt like part of the audience and not just a spectator watching the action. Seeing these movies with provided captioning to me was a celebration of the recent 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.