What is Closed Captioning?
Closed Captioning displays the audio of television programming as text on a TV screen. Closed Captioning is a link to entertainment, news, and information for Deaf and heard-of-hearing individuals. Congress requires cable operators, broadcasters, satellite distributors and other multi-channel video programming distributors to close caption their programs.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has created rules to ensure accessibility for all Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, they also ensure caption quality and provide guidance to video programming distributors.
Closed Captioning requirements:
Exempt Programming:
At this time there are two categories for exempt programming. The first being economically burdensome and the second being self implementing. To be granted exemption from providing closed captioning due to an economic burden the FCC has established procedures for petitioning. Included in self-implementing exemptions are public service announcements shorter than 10 minutes and not paid for with federal dollars, programming that is primarily text, and finally programming shown from 2 a.m to 6 a.m (FCC, 2014).
Why is Closed Captioning a Hot Topic?
In 2005 the government enacted the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) with a clear goal to make Ontario accessible, this included closed captioning. Television is not the only device that must be closed captioned, other devices such as Netflix, teaching aids used in the classroom and youtube videos should all be closed captioned as well. Although all of these devices should be closed captioned the fact of the matter is that most of them are not, and if they are they are captioned incorrectly. This directly violates the AODA and discriminates against Deaf and hard-of hearing consumers. If more people are educated about the importance of closed captioning hopefully there will be no more room for discrimination (Ontario Government, 2014).
Closed Captioning displays the audio of television programming as text on a TV screen. Closed Captioning is a link to entertainment, news, and information for Deaf and heard-of-hearing individuals. Congress requires cable operators, broadcasters, satellite distributors and other multi-channel video programming distributors to close caption their programs.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has created rules to ensure accessibility for all Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, they also ensure caption quality and provide guidance to video programming distributors.
Closed Captioning requirements:
- Accuracy : Captions are required to match spoken words in dialogue and convey all other noises and sounds to the fullest.
- Synchronous: Captions must match with the corresponding with their sounds and spoken words to the best extent possible, and must be displayed at a speed the viewers can follow.
- Complete: Captions must run until the television program is over.
- Properly placed: Captions should not run off the screen, overlap one another, or block important visual content on the screen.
Exempt Programming:
At this time there are two categories for exempt programming. The first being economically burdensome and the second being self implementing. To be granted exemption from providing closed captioning due to an economic burden the FCC has established procedures for petitioning. Included in self-implementing exemptions are public service announcements shorter than 10 minutes and not paid for with federal dollars, programming that is primarily text, and finally programming shown from 2 a.m to 6 a.m (FCC, 2014).
Why is Closed Captioning a Hot Topic?
In 2005 the government enacted the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) with a clear goal to make Ontario accessible, this included closed captioning. Television is not the only device that must be closed captioned, other devices such as Netflix, teaching aids used in the classroom and youtube videos should all be closed captioned as well. Although all of these devices should be closed captioned the fact of the matter is that most of them are not, and if they are they are captioned incorrectly. This directly violates the AODA and discriminates against Deaf and hard-of hearing consumers. If more people are educated about the importance of closed captioning hopefully there will be no more room for discrimination (Ontario Government, 2014).