28 CFR Parts 35 and 36, Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations - Movie Theaters; Movie Captioning and Audio Description (NPRM)

1. The ADA

On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the ADA, a comprehensive civil rights law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability.  The ADA broadly protects the rights of individuals with disabilities in employment, access to State and local government services, places of public accommodation, transportation, and other important areas of American life.  The ADA also requires, in pertinent part, newly designed and constructed or altered public accommodations and commercial facilities to be readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.  42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq.

Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in the “full and equal enjoyment” of places of public accommodation (privately operated entities whose operations affect commerce and that fall into one of twelve categories listed in the ADA, such as restaurants, movie theaters, schools, day care facilities, recreational facilities, and doctors’ offices) and requires newly constructed or altered places of public accommodation––as well as commercial facilities (privately owned, nonresidential facilities such as factories, warehouses, or office buildings)––to comply with the ADA Standards.  42 U.S.C. 12181-12189.  Title III of the ADA includes movie theaters within its definition of places of public accommodation.  42 U.S.C. 12181(7)(C).  Movie studios and other entities that produce movies to be shown in theaters are not public accommodations by virtue of the making of movies, and therefore are not covered by title III in their production of movies. 

Title III makes it unlawful to discriminate against an individual on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation.  42 U.S.C. 12182(a).  Moreover, title III prohibits public accommodations such as movie theaters from affording an unequal or lesser service to individuals or classes of individuals with disabilities than is offered to other individuals.  42 U.S.C. 12182(b)(1)(A)(ii).  Title III requires public accommodations to take “such steps as may be necessary to ensure that no individual with a disability is excluded, denied services, segregated or otherwise treated differently * * * because of the absence of auxiliary aids and services, unless the entity can demonstrate that taking such steps would fundamentally alter the nature of the good, service, facility, privilege, advantage, or accommodation being offered or would result in an undue burden."⁹  42 U.S.C. 12182(b)(2)(A)(iii).  The statute defines auxiliary aids and services to include “qualified interpreters or other effective methods of making aurally delivered materials available to individuals with hearing impairments” and “taped texts, or other effective methods of making visually delivered materials available to individuals with visual impairments.”  42 U.S.C. 12103(1)(A)-(B).