print this pageUnited Artists Settles Seat Suit
By Christopher Newton, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - United Artists Theater Circuit must provide better seating for the disabled in its popular, stadium-style theaters, under a lawsuit settlement with the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
The settlement is a major victory for disability rights advocates who have long argued that the disabled are unable to reach the best seats in the glitzy new stadium theaters springing up across the nation.
The Justice Department and several disability groups sued United Artists, one of the nation's largest theater chains, under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
The plaintiffs argued that most people using wheelchairs must sit in the front rows, where they are forced to crane their heads uncomfortably.
Under the agreement, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, United Artists must locate wheelchair seating in which viewing angles are as good as the best 50 percent of the seats in the house.
UA must also locate wheelchair seating no closer to the screen than the back of the aisle, separating traditional seats from stadium seats, said Bill Lann Lee, assistant attorney general for civil rights.
"Persons with disabilities should not be segregated into the worst seats in the house, but instead should have access to seats of comparable quality to those of other patrons," Lee said.
"Now the experience offered to people with disabilities will no longer be second-best and people in wheelchairs will share the comfortable and enhanced view that other movie patrons take for granted."
United Artists did not immediately return calls for comment.
The agreement must be approved by the court in San Francisco and the U.S. District Court in Delaware, where United Artists has filed for bankruptcy.
The Justice Department has sued five movie chains in the last three years, alleging the chains failed to provide access to stadium seating violates the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Robert Janson, a spokesman for Voice for the Disabled, an advocacy group based in Washington, said the lawsuit settlement should send a signal to the other companies who build theaters.
"Sometimes providing access means making sure the disabled have a chance to get the very best product available - not just making sure they can get in the building," Janson said.