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

Public comments on the 2014 NPRM, as well as information provided by manufacturers, suggest that captioning and audio description hardware is expected to last about 10 years.  The Final RA uses a “replacement schedule” for captioning and audio description hardware in the cost estimation.  The Final RA assumes that all hardware will be replaced 9-11 years after the initial installment.  Within this replacement schedule, it is likely that more equipment will need replacement near the mid-point of the replacement time frame (as opposed to “earlier” or “later” years).  Thus, the cost estimation employs weighted percentages in the respective rolling replacement schedules for captioning and audio description hardware, as shown in Table 3-24.

Table 3-24 : Captioning and Audio Description Hardware Replacement Schedule

In practice, the replacement schedules for captioning and audio description hardware mean that in any given regulatory year after the ninth year, some proportion of hardware is being replaced.  Hardware replaced in any particular year simply follows a consistent pattern depending on the year in which the equipment was originally purchased.  For instance, for movie theaters purchasing and installing hardware in 2017, 15 percent would be replaced in 2026, 70 percent in 2027, and 15 percent in 2028.  The estimation of the hardware replacements costs in the primary analysis is presented in Section 4.1.3.