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Maryland Daily Record
FedEx Field must provide its deaf and hard-of-hearing clientele with “equal access to aural content” broadcast in the stadium, a federal judge has ruled.
The decision is a win for three longtime Washington Redskins fans who filed suit against WFI Inc. and Pro Football Inc., the stadium’s owner and operator. However, its ramifications may be felt far beyond Landover.
“This is the first time as far as we know that any court has required any stadium to provide captioning of any sporting event,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Joe Espo, of Brown Goldstein & Levy in Baltimore.
“We expect other sports venues in Maryland and around the country will take a look at this and do what they need to do, what the law requires them to do,” he added.
While the judge stopped short of telling the stadium how to comply with the law, he found that the Americans with Disabilities Act requires more than assistive listening devices.
“For people who are deaf, there really is nothing else” but captioning, Espo said.
A review is already underway at M&T Bank Stadium and Oriole Park at Camden Yards, a spokeswoman for David Raith, acting executive director of the Maryland Stadium Authority, said in an e-mail Wednesday.
“The agency is aware of the suit and has been considering options to comply with the concerns of the audio impaired for some time,” the e-mail said. “The ADA community was actively involved in the design of both stadiums, and MSA has always been sensitive to accommodate all physically challenged visitors.”
Closed captioning is in place at Nationals Park in Washington, which opened in March, spokeswoman Chartese Burnett said. It appears on “ribbon boards” above both bullpens, one of which is close to the video screen in right field, she said.
Novelty no defense
Among other things, the plaintiffs want all announcements, advertising, song lyrics and video replays captioned within sight of the JumboTron displays at either end of FedEx Field.
Brigida Benitez, lead attorney for the defense, did not return a call before press time on Wednesday. In court, WFI and Pro Football said they already do more than the ADA requires.
After the suit was filed in 2006, the stadium began captioning almost all broadcast material on ribbon boards at either end of the 50-yard line, roughly a 90-degree angle from the JumboTrons. It captions safety information on the JumboTrons. Also, half the 150 television sets on the concourse level have closed captioning.
In court, the defendants noted that the ADA has never been interpreted to require anything more than assistive listening devices. But, citing four of the most far-reaching U.S. Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century, Judge Alexander Williams Jr. said novelty is no defense.
“Had courts chose to avoid hearing novel issues, legal landmarks such as Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona, Gideon v. Wainwright, and Brown v. Bd. of Educ. would never have been decided,” Williams wrote (citations omitted). “This Court need not dodge issues because they are novel.”
Espo and his co-counsel, Mark Charmatz of the National Association of the Deaf in Silver Spring, called the litany of cases “great company.”
“Congress said when it passed the ADA that it’s a civil rights law,” Espo said. “I think those are the appropriate comparisons.”
Moving it along
Lead plaintiff Shane Feldman contacted the National Association of the Deaf after years of trying to get captioning on his own.
“We wrote to [Redskins owner] Daniel Snyder, reiterating Mr. Feldman’s concerns” in February 2006, Charmatz said.
“When the response was ‘We’re looking at it’ — the same as they’d been telling Mr. Feldman since 2003, 2004, 2005 — we made an effort to move it along.”
The suit was filed in August 2006, with Paul Singleton and Brian M. Kelly joining Feldman as plaintiffs. All three have attended games since the Redskins began playing in Landover in 1997, Espo said.
Settlement negotiations took place for the next year and a half, Charmatz said. Meanwhile, the captions were added to the ribbon boards.
While that didn’t moot the case, Williams ruled, it does make an injunction unnecessary while the case proceeds.
“The issue left open in the opinion is whether the ribbon boards should be moved to the same line of sight to the JumboTron,” Espo said. “The judge said there would have to be a trial on that.”
FedEx Field must provide its deaf and hard-of-hearing clientele with “equal access to aural content” broadcast in the stadium, a federal judge has ruled.
The decision is a win for three longtime Washington Redskins fans who filed suit against WFI Inc. and Pro Football Inc., the stadium’s owner and operator. However, its ramifications may be felt far beyond Landover.
“This is the first time as far as we know that any court has required any stadium to provide captioning of any sporting event,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Joe Espo, of Brown Goldstein & Levy in Baltimore.
“We expect other sports venues in Maryland and around the country will take a look at this and do what they need to do, what the law requires them to do,” he added.
While the judge stopped short of telling the stadium how to comply with the law, he found that the Americans with Disabilities Act requires more than assistive listening devices.
“For people who are deaf, there really is nothing else” but captioning, Espo said.
A review is already underway at M&T Bank Stadium and Oriole Park at Camden Yards, a spokeswoman for David Raith, acting executive director of the Maryland Stadium Authority, said in an e-mail Wednesday.
“The agency is aware of the suit and has been considering options to comply with the concerns of the audio impaired for some time,” the e-mail said. “The ADA community was actively involved in the design of both stadiums, and MSA has always been sensitive to accommodate all physically challenged visitors.”
Closed captioning is in place at Nationals Park in Washington, which opened in March, spokeswoman Chartese Burnett said. It appears on “ribbon boards” above both bullpens, one of which is close to the video screen in right field, she said.
Novelty no defense
Among other things, the plaintiffs want all announcements, advertising, song lyrics and video replays captioned within sight of the JumboTron displays at either end of FedEx Field.
Brigida Benitez, lead attorney for the defense, did not return a call before press time on Wednesday. In court, WFI and Pro Football said they already do more than the ADA requires.
After the suit was filed in 2006, the stadium began captioning almost all broadcast material on ribbon boards at either end of the 50-yard line, roughly a 90-degree angle from the JumboTrons. It captions safety information on the JumboTrons. Also, half the 150 television sets on the concourse level have closed captioning.
In court, the defendants noted that the ADA has never been interpreted to require anything more than assistive listening devices. But, citing four of the most far-reaching U.S. Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century, Judge Alexander Williams Jr. said novelty is no defense.
“Had courts chose to avoid hearing novel issues, legal landmarks such as Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona, Gideon v. Wainwright, and Brown v. Bd. of Educ. would never have been decided,” Williams wrote (citations omitted). “This Court need not dodge issues because they are novel.”
Espo and his co-counsel, Mark Charmatz of the National Association of the Deaf in Silver Spring, called the litany of cases “great company.”
“Congress said when it passed the ADA that it’s a civil rights law,” Espo said. “I think those are the appropriate comparisons.”
Moving it along
Lead plaintiff Shane Feldman contacted the National Association of the Deaf after years of trying to get captioning on his own.
“We wrote to [Redskins owner] Daniel Snyder, reiterating Mr. Feldman’s concerns” in February 2006, Charmatz said.
“When the response was ‘We’re looking at it’ — the same as they’d been telling Mr. Feldman since 2003, 2004, 2005 — we made an effort to move it along.”
The suit was filed in August 2006, with Paul Singleton and Brian M. Kelly joining Feldman as plaintiffs. All three have attended games since the Redskins began playing in Landover in 1997, Espo said.
Settlement negotiations took place for the next year and a half, Charmatz said. Meanwhile, the captions were added to the ribbon boards.
While that didn’t moot the case, Williams ruled, it does make an injunction unnecessary while the case proceeds.
“The issue left open in the opinion is whether the ribbon boards should be moved to the same line of sight to the JumboTron,” Espo said. “The judge said there would have to be a trial on that.”
