Your Favorite TV Show May No Longer Be Captioned - Part 1

Editor: Were you shocked on October 1 when you turned on your favorite TV show and discovered that it wasn't captioned? It may not have happened then, but it could happen soon, as Department of Education funding for many TV shows is cut. Here's the story from NVRC News.

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From NVRC News, October 1, 2003, by Cheryl Heppner, Editor and NVRC Executive Director

ACTION ALERT: Your Family's Favorite Shows May Lose Captioning!

News has been circulating on the Internet about TV programs that may no longer have closed captioning because they are losing government funding. Here's what's happening and what you can do about it!

Today's the Day

Today, October 1, 2003, you may notice captions are missing from TV programs you have been watching. The Department of Education, which provides some funds for many captioned programs, has released a list of programs that are no longer eligible for funding. Some of you may remember the Jerry Springer Fiasco a couple of years ago, when certain Congresspeople learned that tax dollars were being spent to caption the Jerry Springer show. Attempts were made by these Congresspeople to force the Dept. of Education to caption only shows that they found unobjectionable.

The Department of Education's funding for TV captioning is intended to be spent on programs that are educational, news, or informational. In action alerts during the Jerry Springer days, and in comments to the Dept. of Education, NVRC was among those arguing that virtually every program on television fits that criteria. How many of us have increased our understanding of police work by watching captions on NYPD Blue, the legal process with LA Law, The Practice, and Law & Order, and medicine through E.R.? How many more of us now understand better all the sports in the Olympics? How many teens watching Lizzie McGuire or kids watching Power Rangers have been better able to understand conversations when their hearing friends talk about these shows?

In addition, one of NVRC's major arguments has been that unless all these programs are captioned, how can deaf and hard of hearing parents effectively screen what their children are watching and use things they are being exposed to for other avenues of learning? Today I listened to deaf dad Kelby Brick talk about watching the Redskins football game with his young son and being able to explain a controversial call by the referee because he had captions that told him what was going on. It would be a tragedy for all of us if his son is forced to go find a hearing dad to learn these things when Kelby is so dedicated to being a good father.

How Did It Happen?

Unlike the Jerry Springer fiasco, these decisions were made in stealth, without any input from the deaf and hard of hearing community. Normally the Dept. of Education awards funding to certain captioning providers. These captioning providers all have Consumer Advisory Boards with a broad cross-section of deaf and hard of hearing individuals who are consulted in making decisions about what programs will be captioned. They are no longer being allowed to do their job.

What this really amounts to is government censorship and it should not be allowed to succeed. If the programs no longer committed to be captioned are so objectionable, so uneducational, non-newsworthy, and uninformative, why is the hearing segment of the American public being given the freedom to watch them with audio?

There's some hope that these shows may continue to be captioned because a network or cable channel needs them to fulfill captioning requirements. But don't count on it. At present, they're required to have 900 hours per quarter of captioned programs. That requirement increases to 1,200 hours per quarter on January 1, 2004.

What Can You Do?

Write immediately to your Congressperson and tell them how you feel. If you don't know who your Congressperson is or how to contact them, you can go to the official Congressional websites:

House of Representatives: http://www.house.gov
Senate: http://www.senate.gov

A more direct route for the House of Representatives:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/

An interesting site to find all your elected officials: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

Here's part 2.