Movie Theater Fail

[norabombay]

I went to the Northbrook AMC 14 tonight, in a suburb of Chicago.

What they didn't mention: It's a three/four story theater. Two large flights of steps from the level where you get tickets to the level where many of the theaters are.

And all the directions anyone gave were to walk up the steps.

It turns out there was an elevator in the facility- it was unmarked, painted to match the walls and generally hidden. No one was going to any effort to tell people it existed. You apparently had to know about it in advance.

But without this knowledge? Enjoy walking up several flights of stairs while being overcome by a herd of five year olds who were attending a birthday party there.

The entire problem could have been solved with $5 of signage and a bit of training of staff.

Crossed off my list.

Comments

Signage for the win

[jesse_the_k]

So so so wrong.

Checking their web site, it's full of "accessibility theater": they claim to provide info but it's good news only.
http://www.amcentertainment.com/AMCInfo/Accessibility/

It's amazing how much more accessible any place is with informative signage. Currently our society seems to assume every person has the energy and privilege to track down someone, ask them questions, and understand their answer (all in voice only, of course). That "everybody understands" what is "common sense."

And that's just not the case!

Re: Signage for the win

[norabombay]

What was so weird about this is that the main entrance floor was standard one level- it didn't look as if there were any major physical access problems. But the upper level of theaters was just weird. I kept looking for the escalators or a marked elevator, and there was nothing.

Weird weird weird.

Re: Signage for the win

[codeman38]

Currently our society seems to assume every person has the energy and privilege to track down someone, ask them questions, and understand their answer (all in voice only, of course). That "everybody understands" what is "common sense."

Not to mention the assumption that anyone you ask will actually know anything about the accommodations. Which clearly wasn't the case in this particular theater.

Also, there's the issue of even finding someone to ask. I've seen several buildings where the main entrance was inaccessible, and there was no signage whatsoever indicating where one could find the accessible entrance.

Re: Signage for the win

[codeman38]

Oh, yes... I know this is a somewhat old comment, but I was just reminded of something I've experienced personally.

The student center building at my university has a couple TV lounges set up. Through no fault of the student center, the manufacturer of these TVs did not include any sort of 'menu' button on the front of the TV itself-- so it's impossible to turn on captions without the remote, for viewers who need it.

Now even this isn't a huge issue. What they easily could have done is chained or otherwise tied the remote to one of the couches so that it couldn't be stolen.

But no, that's not what they did. What they did was make it so that you have to go to the information desk and ask them to turn on the captions. Good luck if you can't speak and have to use a pen and paper to ask; of course, it's equally awkward if, like me, you can speak perfectly clearly but can't hear well.

I've started just bringing a universal remote that I picked up on a clearance rack for $5...