A bill intended to connect Missourians in need with community resources has passed the Missouri House of Representatives, setting up a final vote in the state Senate that would send it to Governor Mike Kehoe.
Senate Bill 1062, sponsored by Senator Jill Carter, would direct the Missouri Department of Social Services to create a program aimed at strengthening communication access services for Missourians who are Deaf, Deaf-Blind, or hard of hearing.
A provision added to Carter’s bill by Senator Patty Lewis would create a program within the Missouri Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to improve access to interpreters, translation services, and open or closed captioning in businesses and state agencies. It would include a registry of communication access providers in the state and provide consultation and training to organizations working to improve their accessibility.
The federal Americans with Disabilities Act requires businesses and public entities to provide free, timely communication services.
But Deaf and hard-of-hearing witnesses who testified during a House committee meeting in April said communication services are also absent. They said businesses often told them they couldn’t afford to hire interpreters.
Speaking through an interpreter, Crystal Rush, an executive assistant at the Missouri Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, told lawmakers that when her father’s hospice care provider learned her family would need an interpreter, they were told they’d have to wait a month for service. During that time, Rush said, her father’s health rapidly declined.
“We didn’t have any idea if he was suffering,” Rush said. “We were left alone, and it wasn’t because there wasn’t help that existed. It was simply because there was no communication access available.”
Rush’s father, the only member of her family who was hearing, died from dementia days before hospice providers were scheduled to arrive. When Rush and her family called 911, they struggled to communicate with emergency personnel. With an interpreter, Rush said, her family would’ve been supported through their shock and grief.
“Communication,” Rush said, “is a human right.”
Missouri Independent (5/8/26) By Nu Steph Quinn