A small group of Washington residents have filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court with the hopes that the state will force private movie theaters to make movies accessible to people with limited hearing.
Providing that added access is a good idea, but to address it in a back-door manner that perpetuates the stereotype of a litigious American society is a bad one.
Filed by John Waldo, an attorney with the Washington State Communication Access Project, the suit says the state needs to step in and make theaters comply with disability laws. But theaters are complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act by providing access to the product to anyone - particularly those using wheelchairs.
To bring the state into the matter is jumping the gun and will only make it more difficult for struggling independent theater owners to remain profitable. For a business, trying to please everyone all the time is the fastest route to failure. Instead, Waldo and company ought to take matters into their own hands and make the issue enticing to businesses.
There are currently a handful of theaters that offer captions for films or the use of amplifying headphones. AMC Pacific Place 11 downtown uses a system where written dialogue shows up on plastic panels affixed to hearing-impaired customers' seats - something like the teleprompter panels politicians use. Perhaps proponents of the lawsuit can invest in theaters that do this and broadcast their use of equipment.
Perhaps another system, something like the caption screen placed above the stage during operas, can be employed to make a theater more desirable - akin to food makers listing their products as having no carbs or no gluten.
And if the proponents of the lawsuit really want to make noise, they could picket non-participating theaters.
Wherever there's a hole in the system, an opportunity arises. But to go stampeding to the courthouse wastes taxpayers' time and money.
