My friend is part of the team behind the muscular dystrophy petition for better accessibility for the disabled to visit the cinema. Part of the problem is the location of wheelchair seats which leaves people with disability in pain and with a poor view.

If you have time, please sign the petition (you can post name/town only):
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=EzPAaL9caZBtx9WJ7bdvcV73y6Qi%2fOFRGL6AI2qzHkk%3d

Thanks.

Here's a direct link to the petition.

It is indeed a shame that this is still an issue.

In my local theaters, the reserved section is right in front of, what I consider, to be the best seats in the house.  Of course, my local theaters are owned by a fairly large chain that also employs many disabled people.  I figured it was a standard, but I guess it isn't.

Quoting DJ Doena:

Quote:
The german multiplexes I know have either the entrance at the top or the bottom of the room and always just stairs to the other side. So if someone in a wheelchair wnats to watch it, it's either the first row or the last.

Wow, that does suck.  My theaters are set up so that the entrance is in the middle of the theater.  At that spot, there is an aisle, where you can walk from one side to the other.  That aisle is where all the disabled seating is located...both chairs and spots for wheelchairs.  There are a few where the entrance isn't right in the middle but, in those cases, there are ramps leading to the middle.

It seems like a simple setup, so I don't know why it isn't a standard.

None of the theaters in my area (that I know of) has a top-level entrance, while there is an incline to get into the rooms, the only place to it is at the very front. Me personally, I want to be eye-level where I am not looking up or down, much less straight up.

The theater I frequent seems to be on the ball in this aspect.  It's a cinema pub, so there is no stadium seating (yet the entire chain is all digital projection).  In fact, all the seats are seats out of old Oldsmobiles and mounted to wheels, and therefore can roll around anywhere in the auditorium (they even still have the recliner handle still functioning!  ).  Once a month they even run a special screening, which is a current family/kids film shown in 2D with the lights up and the volume reduced for kids with disabilities (they promote these as "sensory-friendly" screenings).

They also run several other nice promos, such as next month is "25th anniversary" month, where they will show a film from 1986 each Thursday for free!  The films they will be running are Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Top Gun, Aliens, and Stand By Me.