Theaters must give disabled better seats

PORTLAND — It lacked the drama of some of their favorite films, but three disabled Oregonians couldn’t have asked for a better ending from the U.S. Supreme Court this week.

The nation’s highest court refused to review a lower court ruling that required Regal Cinemas to improve sight lines for wheelchair users. The decision sends the case back to U.S. District Court in Oregon, where the three wheelchair users filed a suit in 2000.

While the decision directly applies to six Willamette Valley movie theaters named in the lawsuit, it’s likely to affect theaters with stadium seating across the West.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Tina Argetsinger, one of the plaintiffs. “I’m very happy. It’s great to get angry, do something and have something come out of it.”

The six Oregon theaters have a “stadium riser” seating design in which patrons enter at the front of the theater and climb steps to seats farther from the screen. Because of the steps, wheelchair users had to park in the first few rows.

Argetsinger, who has a degenerative bone disease, said she was stunned to learn that the new theater she tried to attend in 1998 restricted wheelchairs to the front rows. She said going to the movies was one of her few pleasures.

“I started to cry. It was the first time I experienced what felt like discrimination,” she said.

But in a prepared statement, Regal Cinema spokesman Dick Westerling said the seating available to disabled customers is in keeping with the law. “Our facilities have been constructed consistent with a reasonable understanding of the obligations established by the Americans with Disabilities Act,” he said.

U.S. District Judge Garr M. King dismissed the suit in 2002, saying the disabilities act simply required that seats for wheelchair users must be unobstructed. But last year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision.

Now that the courts have determined that the six theaters in Oregon violate the act, the next step is to negotiate how to fix them, said Kathleen L. Wilde, legal director of the Oregon Advocacy Center.

Regal Entertainment Group, which includes Regal Cinemas, United Artists Theatres and Edwards Theatres, operates 6,119 screens in 39 states, according to its Web site. It owns 22 theaters in Oregon.

Kathy Stewmon, a plaintiff who has multiple sclerosis, testified that sitting in the front made her so dizzy she couldn’t follow the movie.

Wilde said a newer, better design puts the entrance in the middle of the theater. She says the disabilities act requires wheelchair users to have comparable seating.

“Not the worst. Not the best,” Wilde said. “Just give us what half the people in the theater get.”