Blindness no obstacle for Danes at the movies

By Martin Burlund

COPENHAGEN (Reuters Life!) - Visually impaired people got a taste of the experience that sighted cinemagoers take for granted this week when a new Danish film was shown with a special hearing aid that gives the play-by-play of the action.

"A Father Comes Home" by director Thomas Vinterberg was shown with the device for only one day with financial support from the Danish Film Institute, but blind fans liked what they heard.

"It's a really nice thing that is beginning to be available to us so we can follow what is going on," blind moviegoer Ruth Veri told Reuters.

The hearing device is synchronized to the film, so that the wearer gets the dialogue and the soundtrack from the theatre and hears a description of the action and characters in-ear.

Sight-impaired audience members asked that it be made available routinely.

"We want to be able to enter the cinema at regular opening hours and be handed a hearing aid device and 'see' the movie with everyone else," said Jens Bromann.

Apparently, some attendees were more excited about the device than about the film, which tells the story of an opera star returning to his native village.

"If I have to give my review I would have to say that I really disliked (the film)," Veri said.