Theater Chains Agree to Provide Disability Services

See this article by that title. An excerpt:

Thanks to an agreement between the state and eight national theater chains, moviegoers like Farfaglia - with visual and/or hearing disabilities- will have more theaters to go to for such services.

The agreement, announced Monday by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, calls for 140 such theaters statewide.

About 10first-run theaters statewide offer captions or narration, according to Spitzer's office, which did not specify a time frame for the changes.

Regal Entertainment Group has operated a theater with captions for about a year at Carousel Center, says Farfaglia, a legislative assistant to state Assemblyman Joseph D. Morelle, a Rochester-area Democrat.

Among other equipment, theaters will install listening devices that are compatible with hearing aids and systems that deliver narrative and dialogue for headsets.

Many people will benefit from this agreement, says Anne Costa of Aurora of Central New York, an organization that supports people with hearing and visual impairments.