Requires places of public accommodation, resort or amusement that operate televisions during regular hours of operation to provide closed captioning on certain televisions upon request.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A2076
SPONSOR: Zebrowski (MS)
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to requiring places of
public accommodation, resort or amusement that operate televisions
during regular hours of operation to provide closed captioning on
certain televisions upon request
 
PURPOSE OF THE BILL:
This bill will require, upon request, places of public accommodation to
enable closed captioning on televisions in public areas to assist
persons who are hard of hearing.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of the bill amends the civil rights law by adding a new
section 79-o as it relates to requiring closed captioning, upon request,
in places of public accommodation during the hours of operation. It
provides for exemptions if the televisions in the public area are not
capable of closed captioning or if two televisions are broadcasting the
same channel than only one television is subject to the requirement.
Section two of the bill relates to the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Closed captioning is a television feature that displays visual tran-
scription of the audio of the program. It is also a useful assistive
technology for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing. In places of
public accommodations, deaf or hard of hearing individuals are unable to
determine what is being broadcasted because there is no closed caption-
ing. In times of emergencies such as Superstorm Sandy, it is even more
important to ensure that televisions are equipped to communicate to
everyone. This would require establishments to have closed captioning
enabled during regular hours of operation.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A.1547 of 2017-18,
A.2035B of 2015-2016;
A.8268 of 2013-2014.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE:
None
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect July 1, 2020.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2076
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 22, 2019
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ZEBROWSKI, GOTTFRIED, COLTON, L. ROSENTHAL,
WEPRIN, BLAKE, McDONOUGH -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. RODRIGUEZ
-- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations
AN ACT to amend the civil rights law, in relation to requiring places of
public accommodation, resort or amusement that operate televisions
during regular hours of operation to provide closed captioning on
certain televisions upon request
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The civil rights law is amended by adding a new section
2 79-o to read as follows:
3 § 79-o. Closed captioning in places of public accommodation, resort or
4 amusement. 1. A place of public accommodation, resort or amusement, as
5 defined in subdivision nine of section two hundred ninety-two of the
6 executive law, shall upon request be required to have closed captioning
7 enabled on all televisions that are located in the public area of such
8 establishment during regular hours of business. The regular hours of
9 business of the place of public accommodation, resort or amusement shall
10 be the hours of operation as posted in such establishment.
11 2. The provisions of this section shall not apply if:
12 (a) no televisions in the public area of the place of public accommo-
13 dation, resort or amusement are capable of providing closed captioning;
14 or
15 (b) in the event that two televisions in the public area of the place
16 of public accommodation, resort or amusement have the same channel
17 being broadcast, only one of the televisions shall be subject to this
18 section.
19 3. As used in this section:
20 (a) "closed captioning" shall mean a feature on a television that when
21 activated will visually display a transcription of the audio portion of
22 video programming; and
23 (b) "public area" shall mean the section of a place of public accommo-
24 dation, resort or amusement that is open to the general public.
25 § 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2020.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01560-01-9