Television coverage of the Kauai Police Commission proceedings is a victim of moves by the County of Kauai to provide captioning of Mayor Maryanne Kusaka’s weekly show, and gavel-to-gavel, captioned coverage of other boards. That’s the word from J Robertson,
Television coverage of the Kauai Police Commission proceedings is a victim of moves by the County of Kauai to provide captioning of Mayor Maryanne Kusaka’s weekly show, and gavel-to-gavel, captioned coverage of other boards.
That’s the word from J Robertson, managing director of Ho’ike Kaua’i Community Television, which has a contract with the county to film various county boards and commissions and the mayor’s weekly show, and air them on channel 13.
The county made the decision to end Ho’ike camera coverage of the Police Commission to allow the time and manpower necessary to get the mayor’s show, and council and Planning Commission proceedings properly captioned, Roberston said.
The changes come about as the county has been ordered through provisions of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act to not show any government program before it has been edited to include subtitles (captioning) for hearing-impaired viewers, according to Beth Tokioka, county public information officer.
Before the order, from the state Disability and Communication Access Board, the council meetings held each Thursday were scheduled to run for seven straight days beginning the Friday immediately after the meetings.
Now, those broadcasts won’t begin until the Monday following each Thursday meeting, as it takes that long to add the mandated captioning, Robertson explained.
The mayor’s show is filmed each Tuesday, and had run on channel 13 beginning the Friday of the week it was filmed. Now, it also won’t run until the Monday after the show is taped, as it, too, has captioning requirements.
The Planning Commission, which meets the second and fourth Tuesday of each month, had seen its meetings airing on government access TV beginning the Friday of the week of each meeting.
Those air dates are being pushed back to the Monday following each meeting, too, because of the captioning requirements, Robertson said.
“Basically, we were informed by the state Disability and Communication Access Board that the meeting could not be televised until it was accessible to all viewers,” said Tokioka.
“The county has worked hard to bring all programs and facilities into ADA compliance, and this is another step in that process,” she added.
Questions about this change in policy should be directed to Tokioka, 241-6303.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).