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

The costs of a regulation are commonly defined relative to a “no action” baseline that reflects “what the world will be like if the proposed rule is not adopted.”⁸  In the case of this rule, the no action baseline should reflect the extent to which movie theaters would provide closed movie captioning and audio description in the absence of the rule and should reflect the determination many courts have made that closed movie captioning and audio description is already required under the ADA.

Using this baseline, the total incremental costs of the rule are calculated for 15 years at both 7-percent and 3-percent discount rates, discounted to 2015. The total costs quantified for the final rule are comprised of the following:

Upfront Costs (One-time)

• Acquisition costs for captioning hardware for existing and new auditoriums exhibiting digital movies;

• Acquisition costs for audio description hardware for existing and new auditoriums exhibiting digital movies;

• Acquisition costs for captioning devices for existing and new auditoriums exhibiting digital movies;

• Acquisition costs for audio description devices for existing and new auditoriums exhibiting digital movies; and

• Installation costs for captioning and audio description equipment;

Ongoing Costs (incurred each year over the rule’s 15-year time frame)

• The cost of replacing captioning and audio description equipment under the “replacement schedule” (for hardware and individual devices);

• Staff training costs for the provision of captioning and audio description equipment; and

• Maintenance and administrative costs.

The methodology for combining the components of the total costs is presented in Figure 2-1 below.