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Supervisors’ rules committee advances ordinance requiring closed captioning on public TVs
Summary
The Rules Committee recommended an ordinance to the full Board that would require closed captioning to be activated on televisions in public places, with advocates saying it improves safety and access for people who are deaf or hard of hearing and the Budget Analyst reporting no fiscal impact.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors Rules Committee moved forward an ordinance that would require closed captioning be activated on televisions intended for public use, after advocates from the deaf and hard-of-hearing community urged the panel to approve the measure.
Cammie Blackstone, legislative aide to Supervisor Leland Yee Alioto-Pier, presented the measure as an equality issue and said television increasingly provides news and emergency information. She told the committee the Federal Communications Commission has required televisions to include caption decoders since the mid-1990s and that distributors must add English captioning, with Spanish captioning required beginning in 2010. The Budget Analyst’s office told the committee the item would have no fiscal impact.
Several advocates and residents spoke in favor during public comment. Marilyn Finn, of the Hearing Loss Association of America’s San Francisco chapter, described the challenges of profound hearing loss and said captions are critical for safety and equal access in public settings such as hospitals, restaurants and bars. Jim Broom, program manager for a local deaf counseling and advocacy agency, framed captioning as access to education and emergency information.
Supporters argued the requirement imposes minimal cost on businesses because the decoding technology is already built into modern televisions and because many broadcasters already provide captions. Supervisors also suggested considering additional languages over time to reflect San Francisco’s multilingual populations.
After the public comment period the committee moved the ordinance to the full Board with a recommendation. The committee temporarily paused discussion earlier in the meeting when the committee’s own captioning feed failed; members resumed Item 1 once the technical issue was resolved.
The ordinance will next be considered by the full Board of Supervisors.
