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

e.  Projected Reporting, Record-Keeping Requirements and Other Compliance Requirements of the Rule

As noted below in section VI.F, discussing the Paperwork Reduction Act, the proposed regulation imposes no reporting or record-keeping requirements on any movie theaters regardless of size.  The Department acknowledges that there may be other compliance-related administrative costs incurred by all movie theaters—including small entities—as a result of the proposed regulation, including such tasks as having theater staff keep track of individual captioning devices or audio description headsets.  However, such compliance costs are expected to be neither disproportionately borne by small entities nor significant.  The proposed scoping requirements for individual captioning devices are directly proportional to total seat count or screen.  The proposed scoping for individual audio-description devices is minimal and only applies to those theaters that do not currently have assistive listening receivers with at least two channels.  Thus, smaller movie theaters (such as Miniplexes and Single Screen Theaters) necessarily would have relatively few pieces of required captioning and audio description equipment to inventory and maintain.  Moreover, any costs related to such administrative tasks are expected to be minimal.  The Department has also asked whether it should take a different approach to scoping for individual captioning devices for small theaters.

The rule will require that at least one person at the theater be able to provide patrons with captioning and audio description and direct patrons on the equipment’s use.  This requirement can most easily be met by expanding the training for those persons who will already be required to be on-site to manage or oversee overall operations and the start of the exhibition of the movies.  In addition, theaters already provide staff to distribute assistive listening devices when requested by patrons and to direct patrons on how to use those devices.  It is reasonable to assume that the same staff member would provide assistance with captioning and audio description devices as well.  A separate staff with ADA expertise is not required.  The costs of this part of the rule will include any additional training time and any time spent providing and collecting devices and demonstrating their use, if needed.

The Initial RA uses a value equivalent to 3 percent of all the captioning and audio description equipment owned by the theater to capture the afore-discussed minimal operations and maintenance cost and incremental increase to staff time; costs of adding information that captioning or audio description is available when preparing communications regarding movie offerings, and other potential increases in administrative costs.  This 3 percent is a factor commonly used in construction and equipment maintenance.  See, e.g., Final Regulatory Impact Analysis of the Proposed Revised Regulations Implementing Titles II and III of the ADA, Including Revised ADA Standards for Accessible Design: Supplemental Results (Sept. 15, 2010), available at http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/RIA_2010regs/ria_supp.htm (last visited July 14, 2014).⁵⁵  The Department expects that annual operations, maintenance, and training costs for analog theaters are estimated to average from a low of $245 for Single Screens to a high of $957 for Miniplexes; for digital theaters’ operations, maintenance and training costs are estimated to average from a low of $96 for Single Screens to a high of $1,156 for Megaplexes.⁵⁶

Question 20: Other Costs for Small Businesses

The Department invites comment on the estimation of operation and maintenance costs for this proposed rule, which include administrative costs to keep track of equipment, staff training and availability (see Question 15 for additional questions related to staff training), maintenance and replacement of captioning and audio description hardware and individual devices, and the notice requirement (see Questions 14 and 16 for additional questions about the notice requirement).  The Department is particularly interested in receiving comments about the costs and frequency of replacing captioning and audio description equipment.  Are there other compliance costs, such as regulatory familiarization, that should be included in this small business analysis?

55. See id. app. I: Operations and Maintenance, for more information on standard operations and maintenance costs, and the sources from which those were derived.

56. See the Initial RA, Section 7 for the Sensitivity Analysis with two alternative rates—5 percent and 8 percent—for calculating operations and maintenance costs.