Summary
A Department of Justice settlement with a cinema chain, after a complaint about too few receivers at one theatre, setting receiver numbers, staff training, monthly testing and notice of outages.
Key findings
- Followed a complaint that the three-screen, 1,074-seat Crown Cine Theater in Danbury, Connecticut, built before the ADA took effect, had too few assistive listening receivers; it had 15. The chain agreed to provide 27 there, which the agreement calls equal to at least 2% of the seats, with at least one receiver with a neckloop in each auditorium (three in all).
- States that it does not change the chain's duty to provide receivers for at least 4% of seats in newly built auditoriums, under the 1991 Standards.
- Requires steps, which may include staff training, so that staff know the systems are available, know where the receivers are kept so that requests can be met promptly, and can give basic instruction, answer questions and complaints (including by telephone) and test the equipment.
- Paragraph 15 requires each theatre to test all receivers and transmitters at least monthly, and immediately test any receiver or transmitter about which a customer complains. Staff must keep test records and report equipment problems to the Chief Operating Officer. By the next business day when repair facilities are open after a need is discovered, action must be initiated so that repair or replacement occurs as soon as practicable; this is not a next-day completion deadline.
- Requires theatres whose systems are out of service for more than 48 hours to say so on their recorded telephone message, with an estimated repair date, and to give free passes, a refund and an apology to a customer and companions who could not attend because a system was not working and no such notice had been given.
- Requires signs at theatres that had none and a mention of the systems in recorded telephone announcements, in addition to the chain's existing newspaper advertising.
Limits
One negotiated settlement under the 1991 Standards, before the 2010 Standards set the current receiver table and the 25% hearing-aid-compatible share; the 2% figure applied to an existing theatre built before the ADA. A settlement binds only its parties, and this one states that it is not an admission of a violation. The archived copy leaves the signature dates blank and ends with the date 5 February 2001; the date used here is the one the Department's enforcement archive gives for the agreement (8 March 1999), which fits the agreement's first deadline of 30 August 1999.
Read the original
Cited in
- How many receivers and neckloops does each code require, and how should a loan pool be run?Partly answered
- What does each system cost to install and to run over its life?Open
- How do listeners learn that a venue has assistive listening, and which signs and symbols do the rules ask for?Partly answered
- Do neckloops give telecoil users good sound from FM, infrared, Wi-Fi and Auracast receivers?Not reliable yet
- What works in theatres and cinemas, and what do the rules ask of them?Partly answered
- What do complaints, settlements and court cases say about assistive listening?Partly answered
Cite this source
US Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Disability Rights Section; Crown Theaters. Settlement Agreement between the United States of America and Crown Theaters re: assistive listening systems in theaters (DOJ complaint number 202-14-34). US Department of Justice (ADA archive). 8 March 1999. https://archive.ada.gov/crownth.htm (accessed 13 October 2026).
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