April 16, 1996
United Artists to Make Theaters Accessible
Under an agreement with the
Justice Department and a group of disability rights advocates, United Artists Theatre Circuit, Inc. will make its theaters
more accessible to moviegoers with disabilities. The Justice Department began investigating United Artists in 1992, after
receiving complaints that some of its theaters were not accessible. In late August, suit was filed by several California residents and
the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) of Berkeley,
claiming that the Colorado-based company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It alleged that some of the California theaters had insufficient seating for moviegoers with mobility
impairments or provided the seating in the back row.
Modifications to movie theaters
owned and operated by United Artists will include:
-sufficient seating spaces
in theaters for wheelchairs in such a way that moviegoers in wheelchairs will be able to sit with families and friends
-at least two spaces in theaters
with more than 300 seats are located somewhere other than in the back row
-one percent of all seats
in existing theaters are folding or have removable aisle-side armrests for semi-ambulatory individuals or individuals who
wish to transfer from wheelchairs into a seat
-accessible parking areas
and routes to accessible entrances
-accessible restrooms and
modified concession stands, telephones, and drinking fountains
United Artists to Increase Accessibility
United Artists Theatre Circuit
Inc. (UATC) will make its stadium-style theaters more accessible to individuals with disabilities. UATC will take significant
steps to ensure that the stadium-style seating experience is made available to individuals in wheelchairs by:
-locating wheelchair seating
areas so that their vertical viewing angles are in the same range as the best 50% of the seats in the house
-locate all wheelchair seating
no closer to the screen than the back of the aisle separating traditional seats from stadium seats, and raising those seats
or otherwise providing an unobstructed view (for small theaters with 300 seats or less that are converted to stadium seating
with some traditional seats)
-locate all wheelchair seats
so that their viewing angles are in the same range as the best 60% of the seats in the house (for converted theaters that
are larger or have all stadium seats)
November 22, 2002;
November 17, 2004
Disctrict Court Rules; Justice Department Accounces Settlement
A federal court in Los Angeles
ruled that the American MultiCinema, Inc. (AMC) movie theater chair has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by offering
patrons who use wheelchairs and their companions only inferior seating in the front rows of its new stadium-style movie theaters.
The court concluded that AMC violated the ADA by failing to
provide its patrons who use wheelchairs with comparable lines of sight to the movie screen in its stadium-style movie theaters
nationwide.
Under agreement with the lawsuit resolution, AMC
will make changes to existing theaters by moving wheelchair seating further back from the screen in over 100 auditoriums in
14 existing complexes within the Sixth Circuit and in theaters located elsewhere. Wheelchair spaces and companion seats in
dozens of theaters across the country will also be included as part of the agreement. All future construction of Cinemark
theaters will be designed in accordance with plans approved by the Justice Department with wheelchair seating near the middle
of the auditorium.
