You see it nearly every day. You’ve settled in comfortably with a TV program only to have the screen flash red with a banner saying “breaking news,” followed by a newsperson with an urgent expression[…]
Category: Notes from The Closed Captioning Project
Notes from The Closed Captioning Project
Things to do when you’ve shut off the TV because the closed captioning is incomprehensible
We’ve all been there. You turn on the TV to watch something, anything to alleviate your boredom, but instead you only find frustration because the closed captioning that you rely on is inaccurate. What do[…]
Sourcing for political speech and transcription
As we were casting around for material to experiment with we noticed a number of the political speeches that we encountered were either not transcribed or, in many cases, transcribed incorrectly. The following is a[…]
The Inequality of Closed Captioning
By law, closed captioning services must be provided for all programming produced by streaming video services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. Also, captions must be provided by broadcasters for all content distributed across the[…]
Thoughts on Contextual Line Breaking
Closed captions are an essential part of video production. Whether the media that needs closed captioning is a web video, a documentary film, a training video for a business, or a television show, it’s an[…]
Law in Fact, Unenforced in Practice
United States law now requires that closed captioning services be accessible for all programming produced by streaming video services and must be provided by broadcasters for all content distributed across the Internet if captioned when[…]
How Robocaptioning Breaks the Unwritten Agreements
Communication is a two-way street. It starts with the unwritten agreements, that communication is worthwhile, that it’s important to us, that we will do whatever we can to communicate with clarity and transparency. Maybe you[…]
A Brief History of Closed Captioning
Closed captioning and subtitles has been part of accessible media since 1972 and has played a large role in the development of disability rights as well as civil rights in the United States. Created initially[…]
Veterans, Hearing Loss, and Closed Captioning Services
While much attention has rightly been paid to the physical trauma, traumatic brain injuries, and posttraumatic stress disorder of today’s active-duty service members and veterans, the most commonly documented trauma among them is hearing injury,[…]
Hearing Loss in America by the Numbers
Why are closed captioning services a big deal? Maybe you don’t know anyone with a significant hearing deficit. Or do you? According to the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), approximately 15%[…]