Closed captioning for hearing impaired to come to Langley Township council meetings

Published 8:00 pm Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Deaf and hard-of-hearing people will soon be able to read what their mayor and council are saying during live council meetings.

Council agreed to immediately move forward on creating a closed captioning system after hearing from Jami Watson, a local woman who is hard of hearing, on Monday, Feb. 9.

Watson spoke after another delegation to the council, and began by mentioning that she hadn’t heard anything from the previous 30 minutes of the meeting.

“This request is about accessibility, inclusion, and good governance,” Watson said.

It helps those with hearing impairments, many seniors, as well as people who are learning English and can follow along better with printed text.

“Closed captions remove these barriers in real time,” she said.

Watson, who was a candidate in last October’s byelection for a council seat, noted that she follows council, but has difficulty with following what is said in person as she relies largely on reading lips.

“I don’t want to just watch everything on YouTube and take notes,” she said.

The technology exists to provide live closed captioning on the screens above the council members – which are also used to show graphics and agenda items – and is in use at other councils, she noted.

The council was immediately receptive to the idea.

“I think it is long overdue,” said Mayor Eric Woodward.

Councillor Barb Martens noted that having closed captioning available on the screens the councillors see would also be useful.

“When we’re talking accessibility, that applies to members of council,” she said.

Coun. Tim Baillie moved to immediately launch a program to have closed captioning technology installed in the council chamber.

“I come from an occupation where hearing loss is very common,” said Baillie, a former firefighter. “Just about 30 years of sirens in my ears.” He said that he has certain areas of hearing loss, and that this affects every level of society.

After some wrangling over how that would be paid for, the council voted in favour of dipping into the $100,000 council contingency fund. The fund is topped up every year for incidental expenses that are not in the main budget. This will be the first use of the fund in 2026.