USA CASES

Washington, D.C. Class Action Lawsuit

The lawsuit launched in April 2000, whereby three people brought a class action lawsuit against Loews Cineplex and AMC Theatres under the "Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)" has been settled. The U.S District Court announced on Friday, April 30, 2004, that all parties have agreed to the use of rear-window captioning (RWC) at designated movie theatres in greater Washington, D.C. Moreover, at least one auditorium equipped with RWC must be included in all new theaters. More Information.

Oregon Lawsuit

Eight deaf people in Oregon filed a lawsuit under the "Americans with Disabilities Act" against three movie theatre chains. Cheryl Heppner, NVRC, discusses the pros and cons of this lawsuit, with its focus on closed captioning. She favours open captioning whereby dialogue and sound effect are printed on the film. Projecting the captioned information onto a theatre's screen requires no special equipment by theatre operators. More Information.

Texas Case

A lawsuit filed in the U.S. district court for the southeast district of Texas against numerous movie studios apparently has met with some success. The number of theaters in the City of Austin with movies accessible to deaf and hard of hearing moviegoers has expanded dramatically, with a variety of captioning methods to choose from. Not only is open captioning and rear window captioning being provided, but also DTS-CSS Captioning whereby information on a CD is projected "through a separate video projector onto the screen." More Information.