Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative & Military Affairs- House

Told to that are actual meeting. Ten minutes after. Members chair sees a quorum. Please remember to use your Mike's. And. First on our agenda today will hear resolution actually the only thing on our agenda today well here resolution for Representative fight. And you are recognized to present your resolution. Thank you madam chair thank you committee members I would like to call to the table Jeff trail first vice president of the Arkansas association of the deaf who is here today with his interpreter. If you go ahead and introduce yourselves. Record. My name is Jack Carreiro. Could you turn your. Mind a little player Michael closer turn yes and can you be better thank you thank you. Yes my name is Jeff Corail. I am the first vice president for the Arkansas association of the deaf. I am a certified AT a specialist as well. And a community member. I'm Jamie Herrell and I'm the sign language interpreter for today. The reason we are here proposing this. House Bill H.. R. one to. Is because of an incident that we went through an experience about a year and a half ago. A group of us definite wills went together at buffalo wild wings and we were looking for her to watching Monday Night Football. While we were there we had asked the manager to put on the closed captioning on the television ads it was running. The manager then responded to us. No they would not do so. So I had informed them that all her group has rights to have closed captioning on the television and their answer was still no. The manager then told us that they could not put the closed captioning they could not put that on because of the corporate policy. At that point then I asked her to see the corporate policy that said such. She refused to show me their policy. At that point I told her that I was a certified ADA at advocate and that there was no such thing as that or their language and that policy that they have proposed at that point she refused to cooperate. I filed a complaint with their headquarters. And of course. After I went into a complete explanation of who I am and what I do at and filed my complaint they had no response. Later I found out that we were not the only ones who had been frustrated going to public locations with televisions without closed captioning. A friend of mine. Who is not able to come today had a daughter who was admitted to Arkansas children's hospital and was there for almost two months. And the televisions there had no captioning on. He had requested several times for the closed captioning to be turned on and it's still did not happen. Our Cistercian of the deaf then started receiving more complaints why public location asking questions as well asking why public locations don't have captioning on hearing people can watch to hear the TV without having any problems and we could not we should have equal access equivalent if you can hear the TV we should be able to read what is means that as well. Some hospitals. And medical centers have televisions and liked or public lobbies for example and there are no closed captioning Sturch closed captions turned on. And sometimes that information is health related. Where are the rights that we have as humans to have access to that information. The state of Utah has actually already passed this bill. Two years ago. So Arkansas could be the second one to have a bill of this nature going into effect. And the great part of this is that it will not cost our state one penny it's just a matter sharing information with your community to turn on the caption aims that are for provided those of you who may have hearing loss in your community can't understand what's going on people in your community who have hearing loss would have access to it if they could see the captioning it doesn't affect just deaf people. But our people we are completely dependent upon those captioning to understand what's going on. We are asking for your support for this bill. To get it into effect. This will impact the members of our community. Thank you thank you thank you so much and we are asking for this in the form of a resolution to bring attention to this issue and the state of Arkansas. Take this we can hear me better we are five bringing this in the form of a resolution to bring attention to this in the state of Arkansas televisions already have the capacity for closed captioning it just needs to be turned on we know that it would help as Mister Patel said not only are death citizens are hard of hearing citizens but everyone who is learning English as a second language our children who would have that enhance their reading ability as they read and listen at the same time and a lot of us who just missed a lot of things when talking is going very very quickly so I hope that you will pass this resolution and bring attention we're hoping that people will notice what we are doing here and say you know what my agency my organization my hospital my clinic we need to make sure that that closed captioning is turned on every day it takes nothing away from anyone it only adds and makes Arkansas better place to live so out thank you for a a good vote on this resolution an I would make a motion that that it had to do pass. Well are there any questions by the committee. Okay represented Garner you're recognized but she. Senate cloud you're recognized. I'm just wondering why we are not filing a bill since it has happened in Utah instead of a resolution. We consider that and the Arkansas association that have talked about that let Mister brown speak to that more closely but they felt at this time that we would just encourage people to do the right thing without forming any kind of penalties attached to a bill. If we were at to add penalties that would come with a bill. We are afraid that we would face a lot of opposition for those people who. May already have captioning on. There maybe they might complain that it's a distraction to the viewing on their TV so we had discussed with representatives Fite. And I had to come to an agreement that House resolution would be a better move because at. Are there any other questions by the committee. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to speak for or against the resolution. Representative fight would you like to close for your resolution. Thank you madam chair we are hoping that you will help us bring public attention to this issue that you will post about it on on social media that perhaps when you're in places and the closed captioning is not on that you will be the one to say would you consider turning on your closed captioning it with your help a lot of people out here because everything that we can do to make Arkansas a better place for our citizens with simple things like yes let's all join together and do them thank you so much thank you committee. Thank you. Okay Sir. Did I interrupt nine hundred and insert okay so what is the will of the committee. We have a do pass all in favor say aye opposed same sign. Congradulations Representative thank you pastor resolution thank you madam chair thank you Committee. With no further business committee is adjourned. So.