South Korea's Supreme Court ruled that movie theaters must provide audio description, captions and receiving devices so that people with visual and hearing disabilities can watch films without discrimination. Once a retrial sets the specific scope of barrier-free accommodations, theater operators are expected to begin building the related infrastructure.
The first division of the Supreme Court, with Justice Cheon Dae-yeop as presiding judge, overturned a lower court ruling that had partly dismissed the claims and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court. The suit was a discrimination relief claim filed by four people with visual and hearing disabilities against CJ CGV (079160), Lotte Cultureworks, Megabox Joongang and other operators of multiplex theaters in South Korea. The ruling came 10 years and six months after the plaintiffs filed the suit.
The four plaintiffs filed the case on Feb. 17, 2016, seeking to secure the right of people with visual and hearing disabilities to watch films. "We hear news that a Korean film has drawn more than 10 million viewers, but people with disabilities are not among those viewers," they said. They argued that the failure to provide audio description, captions and related receiving devices at theaters violates the Anti-Discrimination Against and Remedies for Persons with Disabilities Act.
The first-instance court ordered the theaters to provide audio description and captions in full. It ordered them to provide audio description and captions for films for which producers or distributors had supplied the relevant files, and to make assistive devices available. It also ordered the theaters to post on their websites information on which films come with audio description and captions, along with the theaters and screening times, and to provide braille materials, large-print documents and sign language interpretation.
The appellate court, however, held that standards limiting the number of screenings and the range of theaters should apply, citing the economic burden on the operators. It ruled that theaters with more than 300 seats must screen 3% of their total screenings as "barrier-free films."
The Supreme Court took a different view. It found that the appellate court had exceeded the bounds of its discretion by imposing overlapping limits on both the range of theaters and the number of screenings. "Guaranteeing the right of people with disabilities to enjoy films is a direct means of social participation and integration," the court said. "The lower court should have comprehensively weighed the plaintiffs' right to cultural enjoyment against the theaters' freedom to conduct business, but it gave excessive weight only to the theaters' financial burden."
The court also said the lower court "should have examined what standards could substantially help eliminate cultural discrimination against people with disabilities without causing excessive disruption for people without disabilities in the way films are watched at theaters, but it did not do so."
The Supreme Court provided sign language interpretation in the courtroom for the plaintiffs with hearing and speech disabilities. It also officially issued an "easy-read" version of the ruling, containing visual materials and plain-language explanations. It was the first time in South Korean judicial history that an easy-read ruling was provided at a Supreme Court sentencing, a rare practice worldwide as well.
