HB 181 was introduced by Representative Therese Sander of Moberly,
and if enacted into law would require that beginning January 1, 2008,
publishers or manufacturers of electronic video instructional materials
offered for adoption or sale to educational institutions in Missouri must
provide either closed or open captioning on such materials. If a publisher
failed to comply with the captioning requirements, they would be liable
to the purchaser of the materials for damages of 10 times the amount
paid to have them captioned. 

 A House Committee Substitute bill for HB 181 was voted “Do Pass” by
the House Higher Education Committee on 3/6/07.  Unfortunately, the
committee substitute bill (HCS HB 181) deleted the civil liability and
enforcement language from the original bill, thus making it a much weaker
bill.  MCDHH will try to get that language added back to the bill when it
comes to a floor vote.  Advocates who would like to see a stronger
captioning bill should contact their local representative and ask them to
SUPPORT ADDING THE CIVIL LIABILITY AND ENFORCEMENT
LANGUAGE BACK TO HCS HB 181 WHEN IT COMES TO A VOTE.  If
there is no penalty for violation of the captioning law, and no mechanism
for enforcing it, there is no incentive for manufacturers to add captions to
electronic video instructional materials.   And we will continue to have
exactly the same situation that we have today – relatively few educational
instructional materials being captioned.