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

a.  Summary of Reasons for Proposed Regulation

Because the Department’s rationale for proposing these requirements for movie captioning and audio description have already been discussed in full throughout this preamble (see, e.g., section II.C, supra), such reasoning is merely summarized here.  There are, in sum, four primary reasons why the Department is proposing regulatory action at this time.  First, for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing or blind or have low vision, the unavailability of captioned or audio-described movies inhibits their ability to socialize and fully take part in social and family outings and deprives them of the opportunity to meaningfully participate in an important aspect of American culture.  Second, a significant—and increasing—proportion of Americans have hearing or vision limitations that prevent them from fully and effectively understanding movies without auxiliary aids such as captioning and audio description.  Third, technological advancements mean not only that an ever-increasing number of movie theaters have been converted to digital cinema systems, but also that such theaters can exhibit movies with closed captions using commercially-available equipment at relatively low cost.  And, lastly, despite the availability of these auxiliary aids and the general ADA obligation to provide effective communication to patrons with disabilities, individuals with disabilities in many parts of the United States continue to lack access to movies with captioning and audio description.  Movie theaters’ collective compliance efforts to date simply have not resulted in equal access to movies exhibited at theaters nationwide for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing or blind or have low vision.  The Department is thus convinced that regulation is warranted at this time to explicitly require movie theaters to exhibit movies with closed captioning and audio description at all times and for all showings whenever movies are produced, distributed, or otherwise made available with captioning and audio description, unless to do so would result in an undue burden or fundamental alteration.  This proposed regulation is necessary in order to achieve the goals and promise of the ADA.