Southside Mall Theatre in South Williamson, Ky

Thought?:

The theatre is located inside the Southside Mall in South Williamson, Kentucky by the top of a hill at the stoplight. I have gone to the Southside Theatre since I was just a child, with my family and then as I get older I went there on dates or with friends through middle school to high school. Every time I have gone there I always never been entertained and pretty much every time that I visited there it was under pretense because I am Deaf myself so I am not able to hear the audio coming from the theatre. I did not know that such a law like Americans with Disabilities Act existed until I had access to the internet and done some research to find out that there was a repeated violation from Southside Mall Theatre all of my life. Not only that, I was discriminated against every time that I visited but I never realized I was because I did not know that they existed and that would be open captions or closed captions as there are some theatres or cinemas that do provide closed captions or open captions.

So, a few years ago I have got in contact with the management of Southside Mall Theatre to educate them that there is a fact that they can provide open captions or closed captions and even if they do not have the equipment to do so (which they do especially that they renovated with 3D technology screenings) they could be able to purchase the equipment that would at least satisfy the Deaf moviegoers including me. I even printed the Americans with Disabilities Act, they weren’t satisfied with that and came up with an excuse saying that it does not apply to them so I did another research to find that there is a rule by DOJ that theatres do need to provide closed captions which I also have printed for them. An example here: Link to DOJ Final Rule on Theatre CC.

Yet again, they made another excuse saying that they don’t have to provide a closed caption and said that it would be their choice to follow it or not so they deemed it unnecessary.

I repeatedly told them that what they are doing is violating Americans with Disabilities Act and not only that they are also ignoring the final rule order by the Department of Justice. I told them that I am one of their moviegoers, that I am Deaf myself and that their population as a county has over ten thousand (10,000) Deaf citizens living in the county (Pike County, Ky) that they serve for. I even was willing to try to meet them LESS of a half-way by asking them to at least purchase a closed caption glasses calls Sony Entertainment Access Glasses (STW-C140GI) which would only take them back about a couple of hundred dollars ($200). I have been going there several times since I was basically a toddler so I am sure that me and including my family we have put thousands of dollars in their pocket for them to not at least give $200 dollars back by purchasing the captions glasses which that would guarantee them that they would continue to receive my business including my family’s business? But they kept on saying that they are not required to and I kept on telling them that they are so I filed a complaint.

Ever since then, for several years now I have not spent a penny on them and either does my mother along with my stepfather Chad because they have seen that when I went with them that all I did was just staring around. Ever since then, I have been advocating for them to listen to what their customers want which is me and the potential 10k plus Deaf moviegoers. It is shame that they are so unwilling to at least provide the accessibility for me while providing the accessibility for the hearing people (audio). When they told me that they don’t provide closed captions I asked them why they are providing the audio and that they should mute it at least to be fair so ever since they avoid ever chance to interact with me.

I have also written some about this problem in an article which can be found here: Pike County, Ky is NOT Deaf Friendly. For their refusal to accommodate the Deaf moviegoers with closed captions while willing to accommodate hearing people with audio, I am giving them a half star because that is the lowest rating that I can give which they don’t even deserve a half star as they deserve zero stars.