AMC Theatres will install captioning and audio-description technology in all of its theaters in Illinois to aid movie-watchers with hearing and vision disabilities.
The move will affect hundreds of movie screens statewide.
The personal devices will be equipped with captioning and audio-description services for vision-impaired and hearing-impaired viewers, said Maura Possley, a spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
The attorney general’s office approached AMC two years ago after the advocacy group Equip for Equality complained that only a small fraction of movie theaters offered the technology and did so for only a limited number of movies, usually at off-hours showings.
The attorney general’s office didn’t sue AMC but negotiated with the Kansas City, Mo.-based theater chain to make its movie showings more accessible.
“This technology will allow people with disabilities to enjoy a movie right alongside their friends and families unlike ever before,” Madigan said.
Twenty-one of 246 movie theaters in Illinois offered closed-captioning services, and 10 offered audio-description services two years ago when Equip for Equality approached Madigan’s office.
By 2014, all of AMC’s Illinois theaters will have the technology, according to Noel MacDonald, the chain’s vice president of operations. About half of them will have it by the end of this year.
