Help us get over 1,000 signatures!

With your support, we have collected over 250 signatures during the first day since the petition was started. We believe we can get over 1,000 if you share it with your friends, family, and neighbors! The closed captioning ordinance was passed by the Pawtucket City Council once with a close 5-4 vote. However, to become official, the ordinance needs to be passed a second time. Before the second vote, Councilor Barry changed his mind when two local bars came out to oppose it. He went ahead and announced a compromise which he thought was reasonable but never checked with his constituents. The modification of the ordinance he recommended would result in creating segregated spaces for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people by requiring only 50% of televisions to have closed captioning turned on. How do we measure 50% and enforce it? Would a special corner or separate room with closed captioning televisions be acceptable? Would turning on closed captioning on a 13" television while a 70" television does not have closed captioning be considered 50%? What if a Deaf or Hard of Hearing person requests closed captioning on a specific television but was denied? Would that result in an expensive civil rights lawsuit for the business? To make matters worse, many Deaf and Hard of Hearing people were excluded from the second council meeting. There was no communication access provided. They were excluded from being able to express their views on the closed captioning ordinance. This is not democracy. This is not acceptable. To make sure the ordinance has a chance to be passed, Councilor Kallman recommended the closed captioning ordinance to be referred to the ordinance committee. The ordinance committee is expected to meet in early September before going back to the City Council for a vote. We have another chance to make sure the ordinance passes. Yesterday, Councilor Barry agreed to meet with his constituents before the ordinance committee meeting but we need more petition signatures to show there is significant support for this closed captioning ordinance. We need to show Councilor Barry that two businesses should not have more power than constituents. We need to show the Pawtucket City Council that Deaf and Hard of Hearing people are valued as constituents and that they should never be excluded or marginalized. With your support, we will succeed!