Final Regulatory Assessment and Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis Final Rule - Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations - Movie Theaters; Movie Captioning and Audio Description

In the final rule, the Department has identified the specific types of communications that are subject to the notice requirement.  Movie theaters must provide notice of the availability of captioning and audio description on all communications and advertisements listing movie showings and times that are provided at or on any of the following: the box office and other ticketing locations, Web sites, mobile apps, newspapers, and the telephone.  This list is exhaustive.  Despite this change, the Department maintains its position that any costs associated with the notice requirement are de minimis because indicating the availability of captioning and audio description should not increase the cost of advertisements.  (See Section 2.4.4.2 for more detailed discussion regarding why these costs are likely de minimis, which includes a discussion of the existing practice among many movie theaters of using abbreviations to indicate the availability of closed movie captioning, e.g., “CC”, and audio description, e.g., “AD”).  Therefore, the Final RA’s cost estimation with regards to the notice requirement remains unchanged.