AMC Theaters is getting sued for discriminating against blind people.
Several blind men and women, the California Council of the Blind and the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired have filed a nationwide class action lawsuit against AMC Theatres. The lawsuit alleges that AMC is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and are failing to provide properly functioning audio description technology.
“I was so excited to take my sighted sons to see their first theater movie – ‘The Good Dinosaur,’” plaintiff Scott Blanks said. “Unfortunately, my excitement quickly turned into disappointment once the movie started and the audio description track kept starting and stopping and then stopped playing altogether. Because the equipment failed, I could not fully enjoy my first moviegoing experience with my children.”
AMC argues that they provide audio description services at many of their movie theaters. However, according to the lawsuit, the audio services do not work properly. The audio description services have been reported to not play audio at all or play audio description for the wrong movie.
“Millions of individuals go to AMC theaters each year to enjoy movies, but AMC fails to make this experience accessible to people who are blind or low vision because AMC does not provide properly functioning audio description technology that would allow these moviegoers to fully access movies,” Jeff Thom, President of CCB said. “Millions of Americans are blind or low vision. This is the first class action lawsuit of its kind to address audio description in theaters on a nationwide basis.”
