June 26, 2025
Advocate of the Month: Warehouse Cinemas Leitersburg
Our Advocate of the Months go above and beyond to provide inclusivity for people with disabilities. Our June Advocate of the Month, Warehouse Cinemas Leitersburg, commits to going beyond basic ADA requirements to ensure people of all abilities enjoy their movie theater experience.
Elliott Churchey, the Customer Service Manager for the Warehouse Cinemas Leitersburg location, says the difference lies in Warehouse’s commitment to training their team members properly.
“Part of our employee culture is to ‘save the day’ and ‘make moments worth remembering’,” says Elliott. “That's a really big part of our culture and brand identity. We really go above and beyond to make someone's day.”
A member of Star’s focus group who is a regular movie-goer says that while all movie theaters are required to provide accessibility devices, such as those for closed captioning and audio description, many movie theater staff members aren’t trained on how to properly set up the devices. Elliott says Warehouse “takes that stuff seriously,” as all their supervisors and leadership team are trained to set up accessibility devices, and all team members are trained on how to recognize if someone might need an accessibility device. Alongside this, all of Warehouse’s leadership supervisor crew are taught basic sign language.
The theater has also developed a relationship with the local deaf community to provide open caption showings. An employee at Warehouse Cinemas Leitersburg communicates directly with a local deaf self-advocate to learn what exact movies and showtimes they can provide as open captioning screenings, ensuring the deaf community can easily attend them.
Ronald, a Star Community DSP, remarks on how Warehouse Cinema’s respectful team members make a notable difference in the movie-going experience for people with disabilities.
“The people I support are still getting used to the idea of having reserved seats at a movie theater,” said Ronald. “Once, someone I supported wanted to sit in a seat that was already reserved for someone else, and I knew he wasn’t going to respond well to switching to his correct seat. A Warehouse staff member actually asked the people who reserved that seat if they wouldn’t mind going to different seats, to which they agreed. Also, a person I support has strict dietary restrictions, and they are more than happy to make accommodations for menu items with any ingredients we bring along with us.”