ometimes a video just doesn't cut it. You need to get yourself to the movie theater. You need the popcorn and the buzz of people around you.   Newer theaters offer more amusements than just the movie. They have coffee bars, party rooms for kids and gaming areas. But for the disabled, going to the cinema can be an obstacle course.

An estimated 17 percent of the population has some kind of handicap and, as aging baby boomers develop their own mobility problems, you can be sure they will pave the way for total convenience. Theater owners recognize this and have been putting the pressure on to make sure audiences can get to their seats and enjoy the film.   AMC theaters in the Toronto/Ottawa areas have put in elevators so moviegoers in wheelchairs can sit at the back of the theater instead of just at the front. The newest Cineplex Odeon theaters, such as the dazzling new cinema which just opened in Ste. Foy, Quebec, have high-tech designed chairs with transfer arms, a swing-away design that allows wheelchair patrons to sit comfortably in aisle seats.   Give a techno-wiz a challenge, like a hearing-challenged movie patron, and what do you get? A solution! The majority of Cineplex Odeon cinemas, as well as Empire theaters, offer devices that work like a single ear-piece Walkman which broadcasts the film soundtrack on an FM band and allows for volume control.   Regular movie houses present their own challenges but one might expect IMAX theaters with their extreme seating and massive screen to be even more complicated. Not so. OMNIMAX at the Ontario Science Centre is one of the most advanced cinemas in this area. Ushers are specifically trained to help patrons over a wide variety of disability hurtles. An easy access elevator goes directly to the floor with wheelchair seating, the same floor that has washrooms. The wheelchair seating is in prime territory two-thirds of the way back.   They've also outfitted the auditorium for listening devices and, for the visually impaired, they've gone to WGBH Educational Foundation in Boston for DVS, which is a narrated description of key visual elements in a movie, like actions, settings, facial expressions, costumes and scene changes, inserted in the soundtrack without interfering with the dialogue.   Another innovation on the movie-going horizon is technology which provides closed captions for movies without displaying them to the entire audience. At the back of the theater a LED print-out of the dialogue is displayed, in reverse. Patrons use transparent eye-level acrylic panels attached to the cupholders at their seats to reflect the captions so that they appear superimposed on or

beneath the movie screen. "It's a matter of people realizing that everyone is entitled to go to the movies," says Dean Leland of Empire Theater chain, which has 18 movie houses in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. "We, as an industry, need to address this reality." - Cynthia Amsden