HRS §489-9
Movie theater accommodations
Read the official text at capitol.hawaii.gov ↗This law requires certain movie theaters to offer open captions and audio descriptions for movies that come with them. Theaters must tell the public if a movie lacks these features. Breaking this law counts as discrimination.
businesses
The statute, as written — Motion picture theater accommodation
A copy, taken August 20, 2026. The version published by the Legislature is the one that governs, and it may have changed since. Check it before relying on anything here.
(a) A public accommodation that owns, leases, leases to, or operates a motion picture theater in more than two locations in the State shall provide open movie captioning during at least two showings per week of each motion picture that is produced and offered with open movie captioning. (b) A public accommodation that owns, leases, leases to, or operates a motion picture theater in the State shall provide, upon request, audio description of any motion picture that is produced and offered with audio description. (c) A violation of this section shall be a discriminatory practice. (d) This section shall apply to motion pictures that are produced and distributed with the necessary auxiliary aids and services, including captioning and audio description. This section shall not prohibit the showing of a motion picture that is produced and distributed without captioning and audio description; provided that a public accommodation that owns, leases, leases to, or operates a motion picture theater shall provide notice to the public if a motion picture offered for viewing is produced and distributed without captioning or audio description. (e) For the purposes of this section, "motion picture theater" means a movie theater, screening room, or other venue in use primarily for the exhibition of a motion picture.
LawTrove is not legal advice. The summary above is a computer-generated restatement — the authoritative text is the official version linked above.