On the same day that the U.S. Justice Department was asking for comments on a proposed rule requiring movie theaters to provide closed captions for hard-of-hearing customers along with audio descriptions for blind theatergoers, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley was finalizing an agreement with three of the biggest movie theater chains to dramatically increase accessibility options at movie theaters throughout the state.
It’s no coincidence that the major theater chains are finally agreeing to provide more accessibility services at the same time the government is making noises about strengthening its mandates. In Massachusetts, the agreement was a settlement of a formal civil rights complaint brought by deaf and blind residents alleging discrimination because of the absence of accessible technology.
The Justice Department put theater owners on notice it was considering changing its regulations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to mandate closed captioning and audio descriptions at all theater locations. In a notice published in the Federal Register, the Justice Department noted the slow progress the industry had made in providing accessibility options in spite of advances in technology making captioning and audio descriptions easier than in the past:
The Department is concerned about what appears to be a significant disconnect between the production of movies that have captioning and video description capabilities and the actual exhibition or availability of such movies to individuals with sensory disabilities. The Department also is concerned that even when captioned and video described movies are exhibited, their showings appear to be relegated to the middle of the week or midday showings.
The publication of the notice about the proposed rule change is the start of a three-to-six month process that will include comments by all parties, hearings, and ultimately a decision to revise the regulations or maintain the status quo.
The consent agreement in Massachusetts may indicate which way the political winds are blowing and presage similar agreement to increase accessibility nationally. Three of the nation’s biggest theater owners, National Amusements, Inc. (which runs Showcase Cinemas), American Multi-Cinema (AMC Theaters) and the Regal Entertainment Group (Regal Theaters) agreed to ensure that every location in Massachusetts is equipped with accessible technology that will provide meaningful access to the hearing and visually impaired, including captioning technology and description technology.
Captioning technology takes a movie’s sound (dialogue, music, sound-effects) and converts it to a captioned format that a hearing impaired audience member can read. Description technology provides a narration of what is displayed visually on the movie screen (action, scene changes, facial expressions) during natural pauses in the movie’s soundtrack through headphones worn by the visually impaired.
Additionally, the theaters agreed that multiplexes with 10 or more screens will have at least two accessible auditoriums, one of which will be in the locations’ largest auditorium — a huge benefit to theatergoers frustrated that the captioned movies are never the ones they want to see. By requiring captioning and audio descriptions in the largest auditorium, hearing and visually impaired patrons won’t have to wait for blockbuster films to make their way to the smaller auditoriums that have historically been equipped with accessibility equipment.
All in all, a banner week for captioning advocates, capping the celebrations of the 20th Anniversary of the signing of the ADA legislation and passage in the U.S. House of Representatives, by a huge margin, of H.R. 3101, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, that will require more accessibility over the Internet including closed captioning of TV shows broadcast on the web.
anubhav kapoor says
There has been a lot of noise regarding this subject in the recent past…it would be nice for the state authorities to set-up a regulation wherein providing captions is made mandatory. Once a regulation comes into force, the question of pricing or the private players opposing it, naturally disappears.