Cinemark theaters in California to add closed captioning to comply with ADA

From The Associated Press:

BERKELEY, Calif. — Cinemark will install closed captioning devices for people with impaired hearing at all 64 of its California movie theaters by the middle of 2012.

The company's decision, announced on April 26, settles a lawsuit filed in Alameda County in December by a Berkeley, Calif.-based disability rights group.

The group, Disability Rights Advocates, said Cinemark Holdings, Inc. was the only one of the nation's three largest movie chains not to offer closed-captioning equipment. Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc. provide captioning, though not at all hours and in all theaters.

The settlement only applies to California. But Sid Wolinsky, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the suit, tells the San Francisco Chronicle that advocates are meeting with Plano, Texas-based Cinemark and other chains to try to get closed captioning in other states.