Every public place in the city with a television set will have to display closed captioning during business hours beginning next month, or face the specter of hundreds or thousands in fines.
As advocates for the deaf cheered, and restaurant lobbyists shook their heads in frustration, Portland City Council this morning unanimously adopted an ordinance designed to ensure people with hearing problems have equal access to Portland’s public TVs.
“This ordinance benefits everyone,” said Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who brought the law forward. “It promotes access for everyone.”
Under the new law, “any person owning or managing a public facility must activate closed captioning on any closed captioned television receiver in use in any public area during regular hours.” Those facilities include not just Portland’s many bars and restaurants, but also membership-oriented businesses like gyms, Fritz made clear. The same rule already exists in airports.
The law was pushed by advocates who argued, in part, that vital breaking news could be lost to deaf patrons without new rules—particularly in emergency situations—and who said some businesses are resistant to turning on captions when customers ask.
But the new ordinance also met skepticism, a central argument being that sports bars and similar venues should have the option to leave captions off if no deaf customers are present and captions might, as Commissioner Steve Novick put it, “obscure the action.”
Novick even considered offering a sports-specific amendment to the ordinance, he said, before being told by the City Attorney’s Office it would be discriminatory and illegal, so Novick simply supported the change, saying “this is an important step in civil rights in the city.”
Businesses caught flouting the caption rule could be fined up to $500 a day. The ordinance kicks in in 30 days.
Next on the City Council’s radar…
Passing a law that any establishment with a jukebox must hire someone to perform sign language for each song played.
Welcome to PCX everyone!!!!
Yea my wife is deaf and even I have to turn off the CC during football games when it lands right in the middle of the screen for some damn reason. I think they should be required to turn it on if a request is made but otherwise let it be their option. On the other hand…I don’t go out to bars for sports because there’s no sound and you can’t always tell what’s happening so the CC’s help out there.
Do they also have to turn up the sound on all the TVs so I can hear all of them equally?
“This ordinance benefits everyone,” said Commissioner Amanda Fritz,
I’m not sure how television benefits anyone, let alone everyone.
But what about deaf people that cannot read english?
How can we help them Amanda?
well that is the end of me going to a bar to watch sunday ticket when I want to see the vikings play. Who wants to try to watch the game past a black box blocking part of the screen. My grandfather was deaf and when I watched baseball with him we would watch with captions, but when I watched without him I turned them off because not everyone is deaf amanda.
This seems like a good use of the legislatures time. The homelessness, high drop out rate, crumbling roads, and gang activity can wait.
It’s not about “helping” deaf people. It’s about facing the fact that our city is diverse.
Similar to why crosswalks announce when it’s safe to walk – or is the automated voice just too much to bear, dear commenters?
Not only that, Azure, but most TVs don’t have the sound on! Deaf people are not at a disadvantage to those with hearing in bars and restaurants because even those with hearing can’t hear a TV where the sound is turned off.
Perhaps, if more places had been willing to adjust when requested on an individual basis this would have not been necessary. However, Deaf and Hard of hearing people are shunned at every turn. I’m proud of this city’s stance.