Movie Captioning and Audio Description Final Rule

12-2-2015 National:

On November 21, 2016, Attorney General Loretta Lynch signed a Final Rule revising the Justice Department’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) title III regulation to further clarify a public accommodation’s obligation to provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services for people with disabilities. The Final Rule requires require movie theaters to: (1) have and maintain the equipment necessary to provide closed movie captioning and audio description at a movie patron’s seat whenever showing a digital movie produced, distributed, or otherwise made available with these features; (2) provide notice to the public about the availability of these features; and (3) ensure that theater staff is available to assist patrons with the equipment before, during, and after the showing of a movie with these features.

Title III of the ADA requires public accommodations, including movie theaters, to provide effective communication through the use of auxiliary aids and services. This rulemaking specifies requirements that movie theaters must meet to satisfy their effective communication obligations to people with hearing and vision disabilities unless compliance results in an undue burden or a fundamental alteration. For a summary of the Final Rule and its requirements, see the “Final Rule Questions & Answers.” ..Continued.. by ADA.gov

USA v THE COUNTY OF ALAMEDA SHERIFF’S OFFICE

2-5-2015 National:

I. PURPOSE

1. It is the intent of the United States Department of Justice (“the United States” or “the Department”) and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office (“Sheriff’) (collectively, “Parties”) that this Settlement Agreement shall resolve all issues associated with the provision of effective communication with persons who are deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind so that they may participate in or benefit from the services, programs, or activities of the Sheriff on an equal basis with other individuals, including but not limited to arrestees, detainees, suspects, victims, witnesses, complainants, and visitors at Santa Rita Jail (“SRJ”) and Glenn E. Dyer Jail (“GDJ”) (collectively “detention facilities”). This Agreement establishes the Sheriff’s obligations to provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services whenever necessary to ensure effective communications with qualified individuals with a disability at SRJ and GDJ detention facilities, including inmates, visitors, and members of the public with disabilities.

II. BACKGROUND

2. This Settlement Agreement originated with a complaint lodged with the United States against the Sheriff. The complaint alleged that the Sheriff violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12131-12134, and the Department’s regulation implementing Title II, 28 C.F.R. Part 35, by denying effective communication with a qualified individual with a disability. In his complaint, Mr. Bonner, who is deaf and blind, alleged that the Sheriff failed to provide him with a tactile interpreter when necessary to ensure effective communication with him when he was arrested and during his two day incarceration at SRJ. Mr. Bonner was released from SRJ after the charges against him were dropped.