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

This section outlines the Department’s research regarding the costs pertaining to repairs and notice.  As explained below, these costs are expected to be de minimis and are not included in the analysis.

Information provided by manufacturers and other industry sources suggests that repair costs for captioning and audio description equipment will be relatively modest.  Captioning and audio description hardware is typically mounted high on a wall in a movie theater auditorium or otherwise placed in the projection booth.  As a result, it is unlikely to be tampered with or accidently broken by patrons or movie theater staff.  Captioning and audio description devices, on the other hand, are more prone to potential wear and tear by virtue of their use by movie patrons.  Thus, it is expected that captioning devices will require occasional cleaning or minor maintenance by movie theater staff, but these costs are captured by the ongoing maintenance and administrative costs.  Manufacturers also noted that repair of such equipment is rare.  For the most part, if equipment breaks down, the answer is replacement rather than repair.  Such costs are captured by the hardware and device replacement costs (Section 3.6).  Any additional repair costs for captioning and audio description equipment are thus expected to be de minimis.

The rule also requires that when movie theaters publish movie listings at the box office and other ticketing locations, on Web sites and mobile apps, in newspapers, and over the phone to inform patrons of show times, such communications must also indicate which screenings will be captioned or audio-described.  Based on independent research and public comments, the Department expects that the additional cost of noting which screenings will be captioned or audio-described is de minimis when a movie theater is already preparing a communication listing movie titles and screening times.

As previously discussed in Section 1.4.3, the notice requirement does not require a movie theater to implement a specific form of notice.  Movie theaters routinely use “CC” and “AD” or “DV” to indicate the availability of closed movie captioning and audio description in their communications, and the Department’s research indicates that the inclusion of such abbreviations does not increase the cost of advertisements.  Moreover, the movie exhibition industry has largely moved away from print advertising in favor of digital advertising.  As one commenter indicated, digital advertising allows movie theaters to add information concerning the availability of captioning and audio description without much difficulty or cost. 

The Department acknowledges that movie theaters will likely need to add this information to their existing listings of movie showings and times on a regular basis until such time that all movies are distributed with these features.  Based on research conducted by the Department, we believe that information in the listings related to the availability of closed movie captions and audio description would only need to be updated when a new movie with these features is added to the schedule.  This will vary as some movies stay on the schedule for longer periods of time than other movies.  However, since movie theaters regularly update their listings with respect to the list and times of movies they are showing, the Department believes that the additional amount of time and cost it takes to add information concerning the availability of captioning and audio description remains insignificant.