28 CFR Part 36 Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations - Movie Theaters; Movie Captioning and Audio Description Final Rule

A. Purpose and Objective of the Final Rule Relative to Movie Theaters Categorized as Small

As previously discussed throughout this rule, the Department's existing regulation implementing the ADA's title III auxiliary aids provision reiterates the obligation of covered entities to ensure equally effective communication with individuals with disabilities and identifies, among other things, “open and closed captioning,” and “audio recordings” as examples of auxiliary aids and services. 28 CFR 36.303(a)-(c). Recent technological changes in the movie exhibition industry—including widespread conversion from analog film projection to digital cinema systems—make exhibition of captioned and audio-described movies easier and less costly than before. In addition, it is the Department's understanding that, at this time, nearly all first-run motion pictures released by the major domestic movie studios include closed movie captioning (and to a lesser extent, audio description).

Despite these technological advances, movie theaters do not consistently show movies with captioning or audio description, and the availability of these features varies greatly across the country, with small movie theaters in rural areas being less likely to provide them. Thus, patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing, or blind or have low vision, are often shut out from the movie-going experience and cannot fully take part in movie-going outings with family and friends, join in social conversations about recent movie releases, or otherwise participate in a meaningful way in an important aspect of American culture.

The Department believes that regulation is warranted at this time to explicitly require all movie theaters, including those qualifying as small entities, to exhibit movies with closed movie captioning and audio description whenever these theaters exhibit digital movies produced, distributed, or otherwise made available with such features unless to do so would result in an undue burden or a fundamental alteration. As discussed above, the Department is deferring rulemaking on application of these requirements to movie theater auditoriums that exhibit analog movies exclusively. The final rule for movie captioning and audio description rests on the existing obligation of all title III-covered facilities, such as movie theaters—regardless of size—to ensure that persons with disabilities receive “full and equal enjoyment” of their respective goods and services, including, as needed, the provision of auxiliary aids and services for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, or blind or have low vision. The final rule imposes no independent obligation on movie theaters to provide captioning and audio description if the movie is not already available with these features.

The Department expects that implementation of the final rule will lead to consistent levels of accessibility in movie theaters across the country, and that patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing, or blind or have low vision, will be able to use captioning or audio description equipment to better understand movies being exhibited in all movie theaters.