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 addition to the uncertainty regarding the actual number of auditoriums already equipped to provide closed movie captioning or audio description (the baseline), there is also uncertainty regarding the distribution of these auditoriums across the various venue types.  The 2015 NATO Accessibility survey provides information supporting the Department’s estimate of the current number of auditoriums already equipped to provide closed movie captioning or audio description; however, there is no information on whether those auditoriums are primarily in Megaplex, Multiplex, Miniplex, or Single-Auditorium movie theaters. 

The baseline distribution in the primary analysis (discussed in Section 3.2.3) assumes that auditoriums already equipped to provide closed movie captioning or audio description are evenly distributed amongst Megaplex, Multiplex, and Miniplex movie theaters.  No auditorium already equipped to provide such features is assumed to be located in a Single-Auditorium movie theater in the primary analysis.  The alternate distribution under the Medium Accessibility baseline assumes that the largest venues are more likely to have auditoriums already equipped to provide closed movie captioning or audio description than smaller venues.  Industry research suggests that the largest movie exhibitor firms have made efforts to provide closed movie captioning and audio description in their movie theaters.  Additionally, industry research also suggests that the largest movie theater chains are more likely to operate Megaplex and Multiplex venues than are smaller businesses.  Therefore, the Department has developed an alternate distribution of the Medium Accessibility baseline based on this information.   

The distribution of the Medium Accessibility baseline by venue type used in the primary analysis and the alternate distribution used in the sensitivity analysis are summarized in Table 4-12 below.  The alternate Medium Accessibility baseline distribution assumes that a greater number of auditoriums already equipped to provide closed movie captioning or audio description are located in Megaplex movie theaters.  However, this alternate distribution also assumes that fewer auditoriums already equipped to provide these features are located in Multiplex and Miniplex movie theaters.  Because the Medium Accessibility baseline drives the analysis in both estimates, the total number of auditoriums already equipped to provide closed movie captioning or audio description is the same, but the distribution of those auditoriums across the various venue types differs.