Focus
A good view at the movies for the
disabled
By ANTHONY THANASAYAN
It has been some time since we last caught up with some of the interesting
disability happenings around the world.
Most of the stories today have been picked from Inclusion Daily Express
(IDE) - an excellent daily e-mail news and disability rights information
service from
On accessibility laws, IDE editor Dave Reynolds a fortnight ago reported
that the
agreed to rearrange wheelchair seating areas for moviegoers who use
wheelchairs.
The US Department of Justice announced earlier this month that it had
settled a federal lawsuit with Regal Entertainment Group to make the movie
experience for wheelchair-users comparable to that of able-bodied
viewers.
Under the agreement, Regal's current and future
stadium-style cinemas will
provide improved lines of sight for disabled patrons by placing the
wheelchair-accessible areas as close to the middle of the auditoriums as
possible.
Regal will shift wheelchair seating further back from the screen in nearly
1,000 cinemas.
As for its other remaining theatres, the company will ensure that wheelchair
seating be set as far back from the screen as possible without "major
construction", said the Department in a press statement.
Regal estimates that it will have to spend approximately US$15mil (RM5.7mil)
to make the changes, which must be done within five years.
The US Department of Justice originally filed the suit against Hoyts Cinemas
in December 2000 based on complaints from disabled moviegoers who claimed
they had been forced to sit uncomfortably close to the screens, which is a
violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Last year, Regal acquired most of the former Hoyts
cinemas as well as the
suit.
Well, let's hope that Malaysian cinemas will do likewise to make their
venues welcoming to disabled moviegoers. Other features to consider include
disabled-friendly toilets and car-park bays, sufficiently wide isles and
pathways to accommodate wheelchairs, and slots where wheelchairs and other
mobility aids can be placed comfortably without able-bodied patrons
unknowingly bumping into them in the dark.
On the topic of bumping into things in the dark, how do you fancy dining in
the shadows?
A new
French) - owned by Edouard de Broglie
- will open next month.
The sighted De Broglie has had much success with his
darkened restaurant in
darkness.
Diners are shown their menus in a lit reception area before they are
escorted into a pitch-black dining area where they will experience what
blind diners typically go through when they eat out.
De Broglie claims that the atmosphere enhances the
sense of taste and
improves the diners' art of conversation, as they tend to listen to each
other more intently in a darkened surrounding.
Blind opera singer Denise Leigh, commenting on the novel idea of the eatery,
told The Sunday Times in
experience would put blind and sighted diners on an equal level.
"I would love to go up to sighted people and nick food off their plate.
People are always doing it to me," she was quoted as saying.
Closer home, the e-Homemakers - a group of vibrant mothers and homemakers
with a working knowledge of computers and the Internet - recently pooled
their resources with Nestle to come up with a Mother's Day awards ceremony
that was extraordinary.
Disabled mums and mothers with disabled children were feted on that day. The
10 winners represented the major disability groups: the blind, the deaf, the
learning-disabled and the physically disabled. Some of them even had
multiple disabilities.
The event organisers made the effort to ensure that
the presentation
ceremony involved as many disabled people as possible. Even the judges were
disabled persons.
Blind singer Godfrey Ooi (chief judge of the awards)
and blind keyboardist
Amin Shariff wowed the
crowd with their performances, as did physically
disabled Letchumy Supramaniam
in an electrifying acrobatic wheelchair dance.
And who can forget the touching moment when Ras Adibah wheeled up in front
of the audience and read out her poem to her mother?
That afternoon also held special meaning for two remarkable able-bodied
women whose lives had been profoundly touched by disability.
Founder and manager of e-Homemakers, Chong Sheau Ching had no qualms about
acknowledging that she has a brother with Down syndrome. Likewise
Nestle's
group corporate affairs manager, Tengku Marina Badlishah, who acknowledged
that her 11-year old son is mentally and physically challenged.
(I know of a few people with disabled family members and they aren't ready
yet to come out and say such things in the open.)
Good show, e-Homemakers!