Maryland governor signs movie theater captioning bill into law
It is official - Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed the movie theater captioning bill into law yesterday on Thursday, April 25.
The law requires all movie theaters with at least eight or more screens in Maryland to provide open captioning at least twice a week for most films during the first three weeks after the film’s premiere.
I did a news report on Wednesday about the bill and on how Deaf advocates and state lawmakers worked together. It was the third attempt to pass this law. The third time's the charm.
The law will go into effect in October.
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Note that smaller movie theaters — those that have less than eight screens — will not be required to provide open captioning.
Also, according to my interview with Jacob Leffler, deaf people in Maryland can make a request to movie theaters to provide open captioning with reasonable notice. This was interpreted as at least two hours in advance. So if you ask, they’ll provide open captions.
Maryland is the second state in the U.S. to require movie theaters to provide open captioning. Hawaii was the first.
https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/sb0092