Cinemark Theaters – Descriptive Narrative

Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho, along with co-counsel Lainey Feingold, are advocating for the installation of descriptive narration equipment for persons with visual impairments who attend movie screenings at Cinemark Theaters in California.  Descriptive narration equipment enables people who are blind or visually impaired to hear narrated descriptions of key visual elements during pauses in the movie soundtrack without altering the movie experience of sighted patrons.  The issue of whether the Americans with Disabilities Act might require movie theater operators to provide descriptive narration equipment is pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a case entitled Arizona v. Harkins Amusement Enterprises, Case No. 08-16075.  We filed an amicus brief in that case on behalf of the American Council of the Blind, American Foundation for the Blind, American Association of People with Disabilities, Disability Rights Advocates, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, Screen Actors Guild, and others.

Case Documents