HB 1340 Summary

• Requires motion picture theater owners and operators with more than two locations in Hawaii to provide open movie captioning at least two showings per week for each film offered with captioning.

• Mandates that at least one of the two weekly open captioning showings must occur on Saturday or Sunday to accommodate deaf and hard-of-hearing community members who work or attend school on weekdays.

• Eliminates the alternative option that allowed theaters to provide personal closed captioning systems via lightweight eyewear devices instead of open captioning showings.

• Makes the open captioning requirement permanent by removing the January 1, 2020 repeal date that was established in previous legislation.

• Takes effect upon approval of the bill.