On Thursday, December 16, 2021 the New York City Council will hold a vote on the proposed open captioning legislation, ordinance INT 2020-2020.

Following the hearing on December 2, 2021 some modifications have been made in the proposed bill. The revised bill is now summarized as follows:

• Theaters showing over 10 movies/week would have to provide open captions for at least one quarter (25%) of all showings if a movie is shown four or more times.
• Theaters would not have to show more than four open caption screenings of a movie in a week.
• Timing: At least half of the open caption screenings would have to be during peak times.
  • Peak times are defined as after 5:59 and before 11:01 Friday, after 11:29 am and before 11:01 pm Saturday/Sunday.
  • If fewer than 1 in 8 screenings are during peak attendance times, then the peak attendance time screening must be open captioned. (This would probably be true for smaller films)
  • If there are multiple open caption screenings at the same time, the multiple screenings do not count towards the one quarter minimum.

The revised bill can be found here:

INT 2020-2020

The New York City Council has 51 Council Members. The bill is supported by 12 Council Members and Jumaane Williams (Public Advocate):

1. Barron, Inez D.(Brooklyn)
2. Brooks-Powers, Selvena N.(Queens)
3. Chin, Margaret S (Manhattan)
4. Dinowitz, Eric (Bronx)
5. Gjonaj, Mark (Bronx)
6. Koslowitz, Karen (Queens)
7. Lander, Brad S.(Brooklyn)
8. Levin, Stephen T.(Brooklyn)
9. Louis, Farah N.(Brooklyn)
10. Riley, Kevin C. (Bronx)
11. Rivera, Carlina (Manhattan)
12. Rosenthal, Helen K. (Manhattan, introduced bill)

IMPORTANT! If you, family, or friends, live in New York City and your Council Member (Council Members and Districts) is not listed as a supporter above, contact your Council Member BEFORE the vote, to ask for support. Council members can be emailed directly from that page (Email column), plus clicking a Council Member's name on that page takes you to the Member's own page with contact information.

If this bill passes, open captions will have permanent legal protection in New York City. Both residents of New York City and visitors to this popular tourist destination will be able to see open captioned movies regularly.  

Your support for open captions via this petition is having an impact! This petition was cited by an advocate at the public hearing.

At this time, no further details about the upcoming vote are available. If additional details become available, an update will be posted on the Change website.