Legal News

Caption if You Can: Fan Sues Ohio State, Looking for a Little Help

By Ashby Jones

This settles it: We’ve gotta get to Little League baseball games more often.

Earlier this week, in a post about an Establishment Clause case, we referred to an experience we had last week, in which, at a Little League all-star game in Long Beach, Calif., the audience was asked, along with the game’s announcer, to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

Well, at the same game, about five minutes after the Pledge request, the same incredibly well-meaning announcer alerted the crowd that if any visually impaired fans needed assistance, the staff would provide a more detailed play-by-play report on what was going on. Hearing impaired fans, meanwhile, could have the player announcements and the like conveyed in sign-language. (You go, Long Beach Little League!)

We were reminded of this latter incident today when we came across a lawsuit filed by a hearing-impaired Ohio State football fan, arguing that the university should offer captioning on the scoreboard and stadium televisions because he can’t hear the announcers.

”When I go to a game, I’m never able to follow the game,” said Vincent Sabino. ”It takes away from being a fan. It’s a game experience thing.” Click here for the report, from the Akron Beacon Journal; here for the complaint.

The suit says the university is violating the Americans With Disabilities Act by not providing captioning at all its venues, including Ohio Stadium, Schottenstein Center and St. John Arena.

Ohio State spokesman Jim Lynch said the university is working with Sabino’s attorney and understands its legal obligations under the ADA.

”We’re hopeful we can reach an acceptable resolution for both parties that will cause the lawsuit to be dismissed,” he said. ”We are considering a host of options including captioning on the scoreboards.”

So what kinds of captioning would Sabino like to see? Captioning, it turns out, for everything from referee calls to song lyrics. He also seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory damages.

‘I hope this will work out,” said Sabino to the Beacon-Journal. ”In my mind, it’s very easy and it’s an accommodation for everybody. If you get closed captioning, everybody can see it. Hopefully, they will see it that way.”

Lastly, in other strange Ohio State news, check out this story, brought to our attention from Above the Law. In March, Kirk Herbstreit the once-passable-Buckeye-quarterback-turned-brilliant-ESPN-commentator sued the IRS for rejecting a $330,000 tax deduction he and his wife, Allison, took for donating their house to the Upper Arlington, Ohio, Fire Division. The Herbstreits say they paid the tax, but are suing to get a portion of what they paid returned. The Fire Department burned down the house in a training exercise; the Herbstreits later rebuilt.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 24, 2009 (boomark / email).