Court of Appeals Affirms FedEx Field Must Provide Auxiliary Access to All PA System Content, Including Song Lyrics

April 7, 2011

From UDN Alert

Court of Appeals Affirms FedEx Field Must Provide Auxiliary Access to All PA System Content, Including Song Lyrics

According to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) obligates FedEx Field to provide auxiliary access to the content of all broadcasts over its public address (PA) system, including music lyrics.

In an unpublished opinion released March 25, 2011, the Court affirmed the decision of the US District Court for the District of Maryland in Feldman v. Pro Football, Inc.  The three plaintiffs are individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, do not benefit from assistive listening devices, and regularly attend Washington Redskins football games at the team’s home stadium, FedEx Field.  Their initial suit, filed in 2006, alleged that the defendants were violating Title III of the ADA because they refused to caption the Jumbotrons and video monitors at FedEx Field.  Shortly thereafter, the defendants began captioning some content, using two LED boards, located on either side of the stadium at the 50-yard line, as well as the Jumbotrons.  They also provided captioning in the concourse areas of the stadium so that spectators who are deaf or hard of hearing would not lose track of what was occurring on the field when using the restroom or buying refreshments. (The concourse areas contain approximately 150 televisions, half of which caption the network broadcast from the field, while the other half display the Jumbotron video feed.)

Because they were captioning game and emergency information as requested in the complaint and planned to do so indefinitely, the defendants contended the case was moot.  However, the plaintiffs responded that the defendants continued to violate the ADA because they failed to caption lyrics to songs played for entertainment as well as a radio program (the Red Zebra program) that is broadcast in the concourse areas, separate from the PA system broadcast.

The district court granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs and held that the ADA requires defendants to provide auxiliary aids for the aural content broadcast over FedEx Field’s PA system, including music lyrics, finding it undisputed that the Redskins could provide auxiliary access to the music lyrics without undue burden.  However, since the ADA does not dictate a particular auxiliary aid, the lower court did not require captioning for the lyrics. (The defendants make typed copies of the lyrics available to the plaintiffs via email before each game.)

The defendants appealed.  The Court of Appeals upheld the district court’s order in its entirety.  It found that plaintiffs are entitled to full and equal enjoyment of the experience at FedEx field, which entails access to the aural content provided over the PA system.  That content includes game-related information, emergency and public address announcements, and the words to music and other entertainment.   It said, “Whatever the poetic merit of the lyrics and their relevance to the sport of football, we agree with the district court that the music played over the public address system during Redskins home games is part of the football game experience that defendants provide as a good or service, and that the ADA requires full and equal access to the music lyrics.”  The Court also agreed with the district court that access to aural content that is not broadcast over the public address system, including the content of a separate radio program, was outside the scope of the complaint.

Dissenting in part from the majority opinion, Judge James A. Beaty, Jr., Chief US District Judge for the Middle District of North Carolina, said that he felt “the district court erred by announcing a broad declaratory judgment that required ‘equal access’ to all ‘aural content’ at FedEx Field, rather than focusing on whether auxiliary aids provided by [the] Defendants were sufficient to ensure ‘effective communication.’”  Judge Beaty also said that “by setting out an ‘equal access to aural content’ standard, the district court set out a rule that would potentially require that all content broadcast over the public address system at any athletic event at a public stadium be captured and provided to deaf or hearing impaired individuals in order to comply with the ADA, even though the ADA itself does not include such a requirement.”

The court’s decision in its entirety can be viewed at http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=In%20FCO%2020110325102.xml&docbase=CSLWAR3-2007-CURR.