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The Perils of Advanced Seating for Disabled Movie-goers — 2 Comments

  1. While I can’t fully appreciate the difficulties you experience, your logic has so many holes, I don’t know where to start. Starting from the advent of online ordering, your article is pure conjecture with no real life example to back up your claims. First , why pay the same price if you are using your wheelchair for seating? You pay for the movie and a spot in the Theatre, not the seat. Second if you want to sit in the Theatre seat, where do you leave your chair? In one of the spots provided for chairs of course. 30 years of going to movies, I have only seen one or two attendees in a wheelchair. The image you provide has 5 spots for a chair and it’s almost a certainty that one will be free, if not all. The Theatre will not charge you extra to leave your chair in a free space if it is not being used.third, going with family or a group. There is no guarantee that any group will get to sit together. But even in the wheelchair accessible front row, you can sit with at least two or three people. But the key is to pre-order early enough if you want to sit with a group. Movies are first come first serve. Lastly the companion seat. These seats are available for anyone, not reserved only for companions. It’s understood that if a person who needs assistance comes with a companion, they can use the companion seat and the original purchaser finds another seat or is reimbursed. That row is actually the best in my opinion. The problem here is you are just pointing out possible issues and complaining without a real life experience to back it up and offering no solutions. What are the great strides that some cinemas have made? Explain in more detail.

    • Will, thanks for taking the time to comment. The intent of this post is merely to point out the difficulties that the disabled (in this case, wheelchair users like me) have when doing something everyone else takes for granted. As I pointed out in the article, the situation has improved since the ’80s with advent of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). But ADA doesn’t guarantee people with disabilities can live their lives free of obstacles. It’s up to all of us to point out where improvements can be made. All my concerns are based on real life experiences. These are not hypothetical. I have suggestions for how things can be improved, but as one person who works for a large theater chain told me, they aren’t “cost effective.” The sad truth is that businesses would rather lose some customers rather than paying to accommodate all customers.

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