Bills Passed, Signed by the Governor's Office and are Now Law !

Captioning Law:

Thanks to our champions, Senator Ann Rest and the Governor’s office there is a new law that requires that all candidates for office who file with the Campaign Finance Board caption their ads. And thanks to all of you. We now have the only law in the country that requires that television and internet ads be captioned and that transcripts of radio ads be posted on the internet. Minnesota citizens who are deaf and hard of hearing who want to get information about candidates through political ads will be able to do so. Minnesota is now the only state to have all three media accessible.

Name Change/Electronic Meetings:

MCDHH’s name is now the “Commission of Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans.” It also allows for MCDHH to conduct electronic meetings (via phone, videophone or videoconferencing) and explicitly states that we advice and advocate all three branches of state government for equal access.

We hope to schedule a signing ceremony after the session is over with leaders and advocates within the community to celebrate the name change and this ground breaking legislation.

Real-Time Captioning for Live News Broadcast Funds Will Continue

The funds that were obtained in 2005 for real-time captioning of live news broadcasts were scheduled to end in 2010. Thanks to advocacy from the National Federation of the Blind and legislation introduced by Representative Tom Rukavina and Senator Metzen the funds will continue to be distributed statewide with funds allocated from the Telephone Access Minnesota fund. The Commission received complaints from consumers statewide about the lack of access to local programming. The funds and technical assistance were offered to regional television stations statewide. Now residents who are deaf and hard of hearing and deafblind who watch news programs in Duluth, Austin, Bemidji and public television’s popular public policy shows, Almanac will continue to receive this essential service!