Arizona Legislature implements new automated captioning system

PHOENIX — The Arizona Legislature recently announced it is implementing a new advanced automated closed captioning system for official proceedings.

“Ensuring public access and transparency in what we do in the Legislature is critically important,” House Speaker Rusty Bowers and Senate President Karen Fann announced in a press release.

“We’re pleased to announce that the Legislature will now utilize an AI-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) to generate closed captioning for viewers. This technology is highly-accurate and much faster than previous captioning systems, and it will enable citizens, especially those who may be deaf or hard of hearing, to better follow legislative proceedings.”

The captioning is available to the public online for all floor proceedings and committee meetings.

The new system is a vast improvement over the previously limited closed captioning available.

The Legislature partnered with the Arizona Commission for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing (ACDHH) to take this important step, according to the release.

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