Famous Players Offers Accessible Services

Famous Players has established new services in its cross-Canada theatres to meet a range of disabilities. Now, select theatres are offering Descriptive Video Service (DVS) for customers with vision disabilities, and Rear Window Captioning (RWC) for moviegoers who have hearing disabilities. DVS is an ongoing, descriptive narration of characters, action and settings. It is broadcast directly to a patron’s seat via headphones. Patrons are who request RWC are given portable, transparent acrylic panels that fit right in their drink cup holders and display the captions.

This theatre company has shown impressive resilience in the face of past criticism from the disability community. After the negative press it received for its decision to discontinue its companion policy for patrons who use wheelchairs (see the Fall 2003 issue of ABILITIES), Famous Players held over that decision. Instead, it has established a consultation group with input from disability organizations to design and institute a fairer process of discounting admission costs to escorts of all customers with disabilities.

Visit www.famousplayers.com and click on the “RWC/DVS” tab to learn which films have these features.