The effort to get state legislatures to pass bills to require captions in movie theaters just keeps marching on! The latest entrant in the “competition” to get captions required in movie theaters is Maryland, where House Bill 1463 was just introduced. Maryland’s bill – Rachel’s Law: Closed Captioning in Movie Theaters – is similar to Kentucky’s bill.
Key language from the Maryland bill: “A place of public accommodation exhibiting motion 21 pictures on five or more screens at a single location shall provide 22 access to closed-captioning technology for deaf and hard of 23 hearing individuals.” If the bill passes, it would take effect October 1, 2010.
With more states recognizing how unfair it is that the Americans with Disabilities Act excluded access to movie theaters for deaf people, it is only a matter of time before a state succeeds in passing movie theater access legislation. Will it be Kentucky? Will it be Maryland? It doesn’t matter where – all we need is for ONE state to pass such legislation and movie theaters in other states will get the message!
There is no bill yet in her state, but a young deaf girl in Tennessee is also making a strong effort to get access to movie theaters! She is conducting a petition drive in her state, and who knows, maybe a legislator in Tennessee will get the idea of introducing a bill there too.
And Now Maryland Too! originally appeared on About.com Deafness on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 18:02:18.
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