[DALLASNEWS] Federal disability law requires Plano-based Cinemark and other movie theaters to provide specialized interpreters to patrons who are deaf and blind, an appeals court said Friday.Beyond stoopid, well into ludicrous.
The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Cinemark, the nation's third-largest movie chain, in a case involving a Pennsylvania man who wanted to see the 2014 movie Gone Girl and asked a Cinemark theater in Pittsburgh to supply a "tactile interpreter." The theater denied his request.
The plaintiff, Paul McGann, is a movie enthusiast who reads American Sign Language through touch. He uses a method of tactile interpretation that involves placing his hands over the hands of an interpreter who uses sign language to describe the movie's action, dialogue and even the audience response.
The federal appeals court concluded Friday that tactile interpreters are covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that public accommodations furnish "auxiliary aids and services" to patrons with vision, hearing and speech disabilities.
"It would be impossible for a deaf-blind person to experience the movie and understand the content without the provision of tactile interpretation," said Carol A. Horowitz, managing attorney of Disability Rights Pennsylvania, which filed suit on McGann's behalf.