Yahoo! had a nice article on people with disabilities seeing TPM:

The Magic of Star Wars Comes Alive for Deaf and Blind Moviegoers in Seattle

New Technology Opens Up 'The Phantom Menace' to Film Fans with Hearing and Vision Loss at the Cinerama

SEATTLE, May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- In a week when the entire country is talking about ""The Phantom Menace,'' movie fans who are deaf or blind are also sharing in the magic of the new ""Star Wars'' film.

Thanks to two new technologies installed at the Cinerama in downtown Seattle, patrons with hearing or vision loss are able to enjoy every light sabre duel, every starship explosion and each line of dialogue. The Rear Window Captioning and DVS Theatrical systems developed by the WGBH Educational Foundation in Boston bring movies to life for people previously unable to fully enjoy them -- via a unique closed captioning system for those with a loss of hearing and a steady stream of descriptive narration for moviegoers who are blind.

""Having installed this technology in several of our theatres during the past year and a half, we certainly hoped to get the new 'Star Wars' film,'' says Brian Callaghan, head of communications for General Cinema, which manages the Cinerama. ""What truly made it possible was Paul Allen's enthusiastic support for securing the film for captioning and descriptions, as well as his generous financial backing. We're also very grateful to Tom Sherak at Twentieth Century Fox who was instrumental in making the film available. Because of their commitment, thousands of moviegoers who are deaf or blind in cities across the country will now be able to share in the excitement of 'Star Wars' as well.''

""The Phantom Menace'' is only the fifth first-run motion picture to utilize this technology in a conventional movie theatre, and the Cinerama is the only theatre in the entire Pacific Northwest showing ""Star Wars'' with the equipment. In addition to the Cinerama, the film is also playing at General Cinema locations in Los Angeles and Atlanta with captioning and descriptions, and will soon be available in Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York as well.

Patrons who are blind wear a wireless headset during the film, over which they receive a steady stream of very descriptive narration, providing details about the action, characters, settings and even facial expressions that appear on screen. Moviegoers who are deaf or have a loss of hearing use an ingenious device which reflects closed captioned subtitles off the rear wall of the auditorium onto a clear plastic screen that attaches to their chair's cupholder. The DVS Theatrical and Rear Window Captioning systems were developed by the WGBH Educational Foundation in Boston to provide increased access to moviegoers with hearing or vision loss.

The Cinerama shows ""The Phantom Menace'' five times a day. For precise showtimes, moviegoers can contact the theatre's recorded information line at 206-441-3080 or consult their daily newspaper. The Cinerama is located at the corner of 4th Avenue and Lenora Street in downtown Seattle.

General Cinema Theatres, a subsidiary of GC Companies, Inc. (NYSE: GCX - news), is one of the largest motion picture exhibitors in the U.S. The company was the proud recipient of a 1999 Access award from the American Foundation for the Blind for being the only conventional motion picture exhibitor to use the DVS Theatrical equipment in its theatres.

WGBH serves the greater Boston and New England region through three television stations and one radio station. It is the single largest producer of prime-time programs seen nationally on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), supplies a significant share of public radio programming, and develops new applications in educational technology, interactive multimedia, and access technologies. WGBH's Motion Picture Access Project is leading an effort to make closed-captions and descriptive narration for first-run films in more theaters on an ongoing basis.