Closed Captioning – Bringing Television To The Hearing-Impaired

One television development which has been with us for what seems like forever, and is essential to many, is closed captioning. Many people with hearing difficulties enjoy watching television every bit as much as those with perfect hearing, but can find their viewing impaired if there is a great deal of dialogue or spoken description involved. For example, news programs, which are by nature heavy on the spoken word, can be frustrating to watch if you are unable to hear what is being said.

Closed captioning, or “subtitles” as it is referred to in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, is TV’s answer to this problem. At the present time, it is not available on every television show, but is available on many of the shows which would benefit from it. News programs and sports broadcasts are usually supplied with closed captioning, although due to their live nature, there are occasional problems with the captioning. While a recorded show can use the scripts for the dialog and get the captioning 100% accurate, captioning which is updated live can often be plagued by inaccuracies and typing errors.

Some broadcasts now feature the use of sign language – shrinking the picture in a way which does not cause the loss of visual detail, and featuring a person signing the words which are spoken by the characters or presenters on screen. This is seen as a way of being sure that the person with hearing difficulties is genuinely getting the same dialog as the viewer with clear hearing – although closed captioning is still very highly valued by many viewers.