Thousands of deaf children could miss out on seeing Toy Story 4 because more than half of cinemas aren't showing it with subtitles, the National Deaf Children's Society says.
The film, which features a deaf child wearing a cochlear implant among its characters, hit cinemas across the country on Friday, 21 June, but the charity fears that deaf children will be excluded by the lack of subtitled screenings.
According to figures from Your Local Cinema, of the 688 cinemas showing Toy Story 4 in its opening week (June 21-27), just 301 offered performances with subtitles.
Opportunities were still very limited for deaf children and their families, with those 301 cinemas offering just 477 subtitled screenings of the film between them, a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of performances across the UK this week.
In addition, many subtitled screenings took place at times which made it difficult for working families with school age children to attend, and most cinemas also only had one subtitled showing, offering little choice to deaf cinema-goers.
The news comes after a study from the National Deaf Children's Society revealed deaf children are only half as likely to go to the cinema as their hearing friends.
