John Quinney (cc’d johnq@gmavt.net) the Vermont Chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America has announced that the open caption movie bill, H. 312, has a one hour hearing this Friday at 8:30 with the House Human Services.
John invites everyone to write a letter of support and email it to him as a PDF by today at noon. If you’re able to do this, your letters should be sent to John as a pdf and addressed to:
Rep. Ann Pugh
Chair, House Human Services Committee
Vermont State House
115 State Street
Montpelier, VT 05633-5301
The letters should be as personalized as possible, and may also cover these points:
· 60,000 Vermonters have hearing loss, and are at risk of social isolation
· Most have stopped going to the movies because they don’t understand the dialog.
· Offering a small number of open caption screenings would bring many of these people back to the movies.
· Turning on open captions is as simple as adding subtitles to home streamed movies. There is no cost.
· H. 312 requires open caption screenings to be clearly identified on all marketing materials, so that movie goers can choose accordingly.
Please see the attached background information compiled by John.
If anyone would like to testify, please contact John. He says: “Your personal experience would, of course be useful; we’re also looking for people to speak to the risks and costs of social isolation that are too often linked to disabilities. We have an hour, and want to provide plenty of time for questions, so you could expect to speak for about five minutes or so. Written testimony is also useful – mine will be based on the attached case study.”Access Denied – The Case for H. 312 – Open Captions at the Movies 09-23-19
Click this link to open the PDF and send the letter with your signature.
https://www.deafvermont.com/wp-content/uploads/Access-Denied-The-Case-for-H.-312-Open-Captions-at-the-Movies-09-23-19.pdf