TV captioning for people with hearing loss
Television captioning is necessary
to ensure accessibility for people with hearing loss. Television is the most accessible of the
sound media, because the Federal Government has required that almost
all new televisions support captioning and that much television programming
is captioned. Still, access is far from perfect, with many television
programs not being captioned.
One encouraging recent development is new resolve on the
part of the FCC to ensure that people with hearing loss have access to emergency
information. Here's the scoop on emergency
captioning.
What about digital TV?
Does it have to be captioned? Are there any additional captioning
requirements? It's the technology of the future. Are we going to lose
all the progress we've made getting regular TV captioned? Read all about
it in our section on
Captioning Digital TV.
Here's our discussion of captioning on high
definition TV (HDTV).
Is Mobile DTV the next big thing?
Here's the scoop on what's happening in
television captioning in countries other than the US!
December
1999 - Another
piece of great news is the recent announcement that The Weather Channel
is starting to caption their programming.
January
2000 is the first milestone for the implementation of television
captioning a certain percentage of the time. How well are the stations
doing, and exactly what is the captioning law, anyway. Here's a rather
emotional article about captioning law.
July
2000 - The Home Shopping Channel recently petitioned the FCC for relief
from the requirement to caption their programming. In June 2000, the FCC
denied that request.
December
2000 - Boomers and other fans of old time television will be happy to
know that VITAC has received a Department of Education grant to caption
old time television.
January 2001 - The Weather Channel Announces full time captioning.
May 2001 - Remember the FCC decision that denied the Home Shopping
Network petition for a captioning waiver. Well, they appealed it. Here
are the results of that appeal.
June 2001 - More Closed Captioners Needed
May 2001 - The National Association of the Deaf recently released
their Statement on Captioning.
August 2001 - WGBH in Boston is well known for its
ongoing efforts to provide accessible programming to people with hearing
loss. A couple of folks from WGBH gave a wonderful presentation
on all the wonderful things in the works at WGBH.
February 2002 - The National Association of the Deaf (NAD)
circulated an informative article about how to file a captioning complaint.
If you're not happy with some of the captioning you've seen, here's
something you can do about it.
October 2002 - In an effort to improve the quality of television
captioning, captioning providers are planning to organize
a trade association.
December 2002 - The next step in the gradual phase-in of captioning
on US television is the 30% requirement for old
programming. It takes effect in January 2003.
March 2003 - Interested in the history of captioned television? It's
really quite a story! Here's a brief history from the
National Captioning Institute.
May 2003 - Here's a great summary of television
captioning information and requirements from the FCC.
October 2003 - It seems that our Federal government has chosen to cut
funding for many popular television programs. Here's
the story and instructions for contacting your Congressperson to
complain.
November 2003 - Here's a report from this summer's TDI convention on
the what's happening in the world of television captioning. The workshop
was conducted in a panel format, with participants who have many years
of experience in the industry. Check this out for an insider's
look at television captioning!
January 2004 - Television captioning requirements increased on
January 1. Here's the details!
February 2004 - Ever heard of enCaption?
It's a new automated captioning technology for television news
broadcasts.
August 2004 - The 2006 captioning
requirements are right around the corner. Soon you'll be able to turn on
almost any TV show and have it be captioned, right? It may not be that
easy, as we discuss in this analysis of
captioners available to meet the 2006 requirements.
February 2005 - Ever wonder why advertisers don't ensure that their
television commercials are captioned? Doesn't it seem that a trivial
additional expense would get the message across to many more folks?
Here
are Cheryl Heppner's thoughts on the dismal state of captioning for the
2005 Super Bowl.
November 2005 - We normally think of cable companies and broadcasters
as being competitors, and they generally are! But they find themselves
on the same side of the issue of providing standards for television
closed captions. They don't want them! Here's the
article from NVRC News
December 2005 - Here it is - the definitive
guide on the 2006 captioning requirements - brought to you by the folks
at DHHCAN. What is DHHCAN, you ask? See the description at the end
of this article. This press release discusses the following topics:
- 100% Captioning of TV Programs? Not Exactly.
- Special Requirements for News Programs
- Sending a Complaint
- Visual Presentation of Emergency Information
January 2006 - Here's a GREAT history of the
first 25 years of television captioning from the 2005 TDI convention.
February 2006 - Where those TV captions come from
March 2006 - Closed-captioners
get the message across
September 2006 - Here's the scoop on the
FCC's decisions to grant permanent captioning exemptions that threaten
to undo much of the captioning progress that's been made in the past few
years!
November 2006 - Deaf
And Hard Of Hearing Seek Captions On Ads
June 2007 - TV Captioning Problems:
Where's the Action?
September 2007 -
TDI Conference
Workshop - TV Captioning Issues
October 2007 - Timeline of closed-captioning
milestones
October 2007 -
Behind the Scenes
with Television Captioning
February 2008 -
NVRC'S 2008 Super
Bowl Captioned Ad Results
February 2008 - Filing a Television Closed
Captioning Complaint
February 2008 -
History of Captioned Super Bowl Ads
February 2008 - Captions and Subtitles -
Where We've Been and Where We're Going
February 2008 -
If She Couldn't Have Captions, No One Would Have
TV
February 2008 - The UK Model for Handling
Captioning Problems
May 2008 - SF to Require Public TVs to Display
Captions?
May 2008 -
TV Station for Senior Community Refuses to
Caption
May 2008 -
Australian Television Captioning Agreement Expires
May 2008 - New Software for Locating Recorded
TV Scenes by Captions
August 2008 -
Some Minnesota Political Ads
MUST Be Captioned!
February 2009 - Super Bowl Advertisement
Captioning Report
February 2009 -
TV needs to work on captioning for the deaf
March 2009 -
Captioning Key from DCMP Models Captioning Best
Practices
April 2009 -
So far, SNY closed to captioning
July 2009 - Canada Requires Phones and TV to Be More
Accessible to People with Hearing Loss
August 2009 - Captioning Time Line Highlights
September 2009 - A Brief History of Closed Captioning
November 2009 - Working to Address Captioning
Issues
December 2009 - ESPN Writer Comments on TV Closed
Captioning
January 2010 - Bill would require closed captioning in
bars, restaurants
February 2010 - Maryland Public
Captioning Bill Stalls
February 2010 - More Super Bowl Ads Captioned!
February 2010 - FLO TV Can't Commit to Providing
Captioning
February 2010 - The FCC Wants Your Captioning
Complaints - And They've Made it Easier for you to Provide Them!
April 2010 - Television Captioning Rules Explained
to Video Programming Distributors
May 2010 - Maryland Bill requires closed captioning on
public televisions
May 2010 - Hot News on Televised Early-release Movies
May 2010 - Contact Information for TV Captioning
Problems
September 2010 - Confessions of a Television
Captioner
October 2010 - FCC Seeks Comments on TV Captioning
November 2010 - WGBH Works with Nuance
Communications, Inc. on Effort to Improve the Quality of Live News
Captioning
December 2010 - Lack of 3D captioning standard stymies
development
December 2010 - Results of WGBH National Captioning
Survey
February 2011 - First Fully Captioned (Including
Commercials) Super Bowl
February 2011 - COAT Affiliates Ask FCC for Universal
Captioning of Television
February 2011 - Not all Super Bowl Ads Were Captioned!
April 2011 - Hamilton CapTel is Captioning Sponsor of
"The Balancing Act"
September 2011 - So THAT'S What It's Like to do
Television Captioning!
October 2011 - FCC Reverses Anglers Order of 2006!
November 2011 - FCC Requires Religious Broadcasters to
Carry Closed Captioning
January 2012 - FCC
Releases Television IP Captioning Rules
January 2012 - Churches File for New Closed-Caption
Exemptions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The
Weather Channel began closed captioning in a test mode on Monday,
December 27th, as the first step in a year-long progression that will
eventually result in 20 hours of closed captioning daily on the
all-weather network. The National Captioning Institute (NCI) has
been working with TWC to establish a system for providing the service; a
test of the system was successfully completed on December 16th.
Starting
January 1, The Weather Channel will caption five hours of programming:
the 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. time period and the 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. prime viewing time. In June, the amount of closed captioning
on TWC will double with expanded hours of captioning from 5 a.m. to 10
a.m. and 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Next January, The Weather Channel will
establish a regular schedule of
closed captioning for 20 hours of its programming day.
The
Weather Channel, based in Atlanta, is the nation's preeminent source of
weather information. The only national 24-hour weather network, The
Weather Channel is seen in more than 74 million U.S. homes with another
4.5 million households subscribed in Latin America. The Weather Channel
Web site, weather.com, is the leading online weather provider, averaging
over 130 million page views per month. The funding for closed captioning
is made possible in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of
Education.
(Press
Release by The Weather Channel, Thanks to Rob DeBeck)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 2001
Claude R. Marx of the Associated Press recently authored an article
regarding the growing shortage of closed captioners. As federal law
requires larger percentages of television programming to be captioned,
the need will increase. Yet schools are producing only half the number
of people required to meet current demand.
To help alleviate this shortage, Congress is considering legislation
to provide $100 million over the next five years to expand training
programs and recruit students. There are currently about eighty
institutions that train students to become closed captioners. Of these,
around twenty institutions throughout the country would receive funding
under the proposed bill.
Approximately 350 captioners working for 90 companies currently
provide captioning services. The required skills are similar to those of
court reporters, but closed captioning requirements are higher, because
the output is transmitted in real time; there is minimal opportunity to
correct mistakes, as there is in court reporting.
For additional information, please point your browser to:
National Captioning Institute (http://www.ncicap.org)
National Court Reporters Association (http://www.ncraonline.org)
Editor: January 1, 2004 was the most recent date on which television
captioning requirements increased. Here's the scoop from NVRC News.
Starting today, January 1, 2004, 75% of all English language programs
prepared or formatted for display on television must be captioned every
quarter of the year. This translates to 1,350 hours of programming per
channel per quarter, an increase of 450 hours per quarter over the
requirement in 2003. In two more years, on January 1, 2006, the
requirement increases to 100%.
If you're doing the math, you have already figured out that the
numbers don't quite add up. That's because some programs that are
repeats of programs shown prior to 1998 (or July 1, 2002 for digital TV
programs). These repeats have a different requirement; only 30% are
required to be captioned per channel per quarter until January 1, 2008
when the rule changes to 75% per channel per quarter.
Spanish language programs are being given until 2010 to be fully
captioned; as of today only 50% of the programs must be captioned; for
Spanish language repeats, the requirement is 30%.
Other programs that are exempt from the regulations are:
- most programs shown between 2-6 am
- locally produced and distributed non-news programs with no repeat
value (e.g. parades and school sports)
- commercials of less than 5 minutes
- programs in languages other than English and Spanish
- programs produced by local public TV stations for use in grades K-12
and postsecondary schools for distribution to individual education
institutions
- programs shown on new networks for the first 4 years of their
operations
- public service or promotional announcements shorter than 10 minutes,
unless they are federally funded or produced
- programs by providers with annual gross revenues of less than $3
million (but if they show video programs that are already captioned,
they must show them with the captions)
The FCC has also received a number of petitions in the past two years
from program providers that request an exemption from the captioning
requirement due to high cost. The FCC has not yet ruled on most of them;
however they have turned down previous requests from cable channels such
as the Home Shopping Network.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February
2006
Ever wonder
where the captioning on your TV's mute setting comes from? Doesn't it
seem remarkable that live news and sports events can be captioned even
as the action happens? Well, even if you've never thought about it, we
have. And we found out the information for you. According to Time Warner
Cable's Government Relations and Public Affairs Vice President Peter
Taubkin, all closed-captioning comes directly from the networks
themselves. "Closed-captioning is hidden within the signal we get
from the programmers. It is embedded in something called the line 21
vertical blanking interval, and basically it comes through on the signal
sent from the network or program. It is not something the cable operator
originates," Taubkin said. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March
2006
Smartly-dressed
Court TV anchors hosted live coverage of a Vermont murder trial last
week. For viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing, however, the real
star of the national cable television show was Karla Ray. She wore jeans
and didn't leave her Des Moines home. Ray, 31, never appeared on screen.
She was working in a home office in her basement, typing the
closed-captioning for the live program. She translated the anchors'
commentary and the testimony. The words crawl across the screen for the
hearing impaired and viewers who are helped by seeing spoken words in
print. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
November
2006
This
time of year it's hard to flip on the TV without getting bombarded by
political ads. At the rate some of these ads are blazing up the
airwaves, it can be a downright scary time when it comes to sorting it
all out. This is especially true for voters who are deaf or hard of
hearing -- when ads don't include closed captioning. "I don't
understand why they don't include closed captioning on it, " said
Ron, a deaf voter who plans to vote. "Perry as Governor knows the
re's a large deaf contingent here in Austin and his ads should be closed
captioned, and he knows that." But 'knows that' and 'does that' --
as CBS 42's Leslie Coons found out -- are 2 very different things. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Editor: Here's a short comment
from NVRC News about the FCC's lack of action on captioning issues. You're
welcome to share this information, but please be sure to credit NVRC.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On July 23, 2004,
Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc. (TDI) filed a
Petition for Rulemaking on closed captioning of TV programs with the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Co-signers with TDI were the
Association of Late-Deafened Adults, Hearing Loss Association of America,
National Association of the Deaf, and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Consumer Advocacy Network.
Soon we will hit the third
anniversary of this filing, and we have yet to see any action on the list
of concerns detailed in this petition.
The petition requested that the
FCC:
- Take steps to ensure that TV
captioning requirements are being met.
- Create a database with
updated contact information so consumers will know who to contact with
their complaints.
- Create a captioning complaint
form.
- Set reporting requirements
for compliance with the law and conduct compliance audits.
- Revise the complaint rules to
require responses to consumer complaints within 30 days.
- Establish fines and penalties
for not complying with the captioning rules.
- Require continuous monitoring
of captioning to ensure that problems are discovered and fixed
immediately.
- Require that, to meet the
definition of 'captioned' under the current rules, a program meet
standards for completeness, accuracy, readability, and synchroncity with
the audio portion of the program.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2007
VITAC, which provides
captions for the Discovery Networks, some NFL games and Headline News,
employs about 100 captioners, including Laura Low of Niles. Low, who
worked as a court stenographer for 20 years, has been a real-time
captioner since 2002. Real-time captioners use a computerized system based
on stenographic shorthand. Words are formed by depressing a certain
combination of the steno machine's 22 keys through a computer program and
a phone line to provide information for the millions of viewers who may be
watching. . . . Low receives a direct audio feed that gives her a
four-second jump to turn dialogue into written words. Like most real-time
captioners, she is required to have a 98 percent accuracy rate at a
remarkable speed of 240 words a minute."People don't understand there are
people in the background typing in these captions," says Jay Feinberg of
the National Captioning Institute. "Most people feel it's something their
television does." There are an estimated 400 captioners nationwide, but
Feinberg says that's not enough to meet the growing demand.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2008
Super Bowl commercials seem to receive more hype
than the game. The commercials spots for Super Bowl XLII sold out in
record time as advertisers vie for the highly sought-after opportunity to
connect with the 97.5 million viewers who tune-in to watch the game and,
perhaps with just as much draw, the Super Bowl Ads. Marketing companies
continually attempt to meet rising viewer expectations when producing
their spots. Millions of dollars are spent by companies promoting their
products. This year's advertisers paid an average of 2.7 million dollars
(and as much as 3 million dollars) to secure a 30-second commercial during
the game. The exposure they receive, and the money they make, is
tremendous.Each year Captions.Com monitors the commercials during the game
to see which are captioned for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. We then
display those who captioned and those who did not.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2008
The gym I work out at has five television sets in
the cardio room. I noticed that when I went to work out, sometimes the
closed captions would be displayed on one set, but not all five sets. And
sometimes the closed captions wouldn't be turned on at all. For the past
few weeks, the captions have been completely off. When I went to talk to
the employees about this, they all claimed they couldn't do anything to
the TV's because only a manager has the remote and the managers are never
there when I am (I go around 6 PM) so I couldn't ask them directly. The
employees kept claiming that they had left notes for the managers, but the
captions still did not come on. Since I can't listen to music, I was
getting pretty bored while I worked out on the elliptical trainer.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2008
Louis Schwarz, who lives part time in The
Villages, would really love to get the scoop from the developer's
television station about all the fun stuff going on in the massive
retirement community of nearly 70,000 people. The station claims in
advertisements to supply 100 percent of all the local news, weather,
sports, club listings, lifestyle stories, weather radar, consumer alerts,
medical news, government information and storm coverage that Villages
residents need. But Schwarz can't get any of it. He's deaf, and the
station doesn't offer closed captioning, though it is required by federal
regulations to do so. Schwarz, who has a financial-management firm based
in suburban Washington, D.C., asked station management why VNN lacked
captioning and was told the station didn't fall under rules requiring it.
Schwarz fired back this reply: Prove it. About three weeks later, VNN
filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission asking for an
exemption.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2008
Commercial television networks face the
possibility of potentially embarrassing discrimination lawsuits by the
deaf after failing to renew an agreement that covers the captioning of
programs. Under a five-year deal signed with the Human Rights and Equal
Opportunity Commission in 2003, the networks committed to increase the
captioning of their content to 70per cent in exchange for an exemption
from claims of discrimination. The agreement, which runs out on Wednesday,
included a promise to begin negotiations for a new exemption beyond 2008,
which did not occur. The networks have lodged a request for an interim
six-month exemption to allow time for a federal government review of
captioning to finish. Until that application is ruled on, an opportunity
exists for deaf people to complain under the Disability Discrimination Act
about any program not being captioned. That could ultimately lead to a
Federal Court order for the station to caption the program, and for
damages, as well as adverse publicity.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2009
William Brook is watching the noon news, and he's
not happy. It's not because the usual spate of bad news is coming from
the tube. It's because he's deaf, and the closed captioning system used by
Channel 8 is lame. I watched TV with the 84-year-old former Navy test
pilot last week. The sound was off, the closed captioning was on, and we
were both frustrated. One of the first reports was the one-day deal by
Denny's restaurants to give out free meals. But whatever the reporter was
saying wasn't showing up on the screen because she was live in the field.
Only text that's pre-scripted for the broadcast is closed captioned, the
service that rolls text across the screen for anyone unable to hear what's
being said. If the anchors ad-lib, you don't see their words. If a studio
guest is on, same problem. I bet at least half of Channel 8's hourlong
newscast didn't have closed captioning.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March 2009
Is it just me, or is television captioning
actually getting worse? I remember thinking a couple of years ago that the
quality of television captioning was improving, but it sure seems to have
taken a turn for the worse since then. So what is good captioning? Suppose
you're able to get someone interested in providing good captioning -
beyond the obvious requirement that the captioning should reflect what was
said, what additional goals should be pursued? I don't have a ready list
to offer, but the folks at the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP)
do. Actually it's way better than just a list, with examples, videos, and
more. Please do point your browser to:
www.dcmp.org/captioningkey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 2009
Carl DeStefanis is deaf, and thus doesn't bother
with TV shows that do not offer closed captions. One exception: Mets games
on SNY, which he called "a continuous reminder of my disability." I can't
help but try to watch the Mets," DeStefanis, 24, wrote in an e-mail, "but
every time I do, I find myself wishing people weren't so shortsighted with
supplying this much-needed service." For a network praised for its Mets
announcers and extras such as in-game interviews, and that is about to
unveil new technical gizmos and add more postgame coverage, it is a
glaring, hard-to-figure omission: SNY does not provide captioning for the
hard of hearing.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July 2009
Cellphones and text messaging must be more
accessible to Canadians with disabilities within the next year under new
rules released by Canada's telecommunications regulator Tuesday. The rules
also require broadcasters to make more TV programs accessible to the blind
and improve the quality for closed captions for deaf Canadians, said a
release from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission. There are more than four million Canadians with disabilities,
the commission noted.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2009
Here's a great blow-by-blow history of the
progress we've made in television captioning, from the first effort to
insert the caption data between video frames in 1947 to the significant
captioning developments of recent years.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 2009
The nation's first captioning agency, the Caption
Center, was founded in 1972 at the Boston public television station WGBH.
The station introduced open television captioning to rebroadcasts of The
French Chef with Julia Child and began captioning rebroadcasts of ABC News
programs as well, in an effort to make television more accessible to the
millions of Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing. Captions on The
French Chef were viewable to everyone who watched, which was great for
members of the deaf and hard of hearing community, but somewhat
distracting for other viewers. So the Caption Center and its partners
began developing technology that would display captions only for viewers
with a certain device. "The system, called 'closed captioning,' uses a
decoder that enables viewers to see the written dialogue or narration at
the bottom of the screens," reported the New York Times in 1974. "On sets
without the decoder, the written matter is invisible."
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2009
I like bars. I like sports. I like watching sports
in bars. This is a topic my wife could discuss with you at length. But I
couldn't fully enjoy this hobby if it weren't for an invention more
miraculous than even boneless teriyaki chicken wings: closed captioning.
Closed captioning, or, as many closed captioners spell it, CLOTHES CAP
SHUNNING, is what stenographers type onto the bottom of your screen,
moving faster than a double-parked meth freak, when you press "CC" on your
remote. These people are generally very good at their jobs, but sports
announcers spew between 150 and 200 words per minute, and most
stenographers were French majors at Swarthmore, so mistakes are made. I've
seen HALL OF FAME LINEBACKER DICK BUTT KISS, and Atlanta Brave Chipper
Jones come up to BAT RYE HANDED. (I wonder if Babe Ruth ever did that?)
I've watched MIKE PIZZA and MIKE PIZZERIA. I've seen a thousand FIELD
GOLDS and a few hundred torn INTERIOR CRUCIAL LIGAMENTS, some belonging to
members of the Alabama RIMS AND TIDE.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2010
All bars and restaurants with TVs would be
required to show closed captioning under legislation quickly working its
way through a Senate committee. But the measure hit a snag Thursday on its
way out of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. The bill is aimed at
making it easier for deaf people to watch programs in bars and
restaurants. Though committee members all said they liked the bill in
principle, some thought it might be overkill to subject every patron to
the text running across the bottom of each screen. Sen. Brian Simonaire,
R-Anne Arundel, thought it would be better to only have closed captioning
on at least one television. And Sen. Jim Brochin, D-Baltimore County,
predicted discontent among patrons of sports bars with many screens, where
people might get angry about missing some of the action because part of
the screen would be covered by text.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2010
The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and the
National Football League (NFL) along with CBS Corporation, the network
airing Super Bowl XLIV on February 7, 2010, have collaborated to make
advertisers who purchase Super Bowl commercials aware of the importance of
captioning their content. As a result of these efforts, viewers should
notice an increased number of captioned commercials compared to previous
Super Bowls. The NAD thanks the NFL and CBS Corporation for their efforts
to promote closed captioning of the television commercials. Working
alongside with the NAD and the NFL, CBS encouraged all of their Super Bowl
advertisers to close caption their commercials. The NAD appreciates the
efforts of the NFL and CBS on this important issue for the deaf and hard
of hearing community. The NAD will monitor the results as we pursue a
fully captioned experience from start to finish for all future Super
Bowls.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2010
You may not be familiar with a new technology that
provides television service to your mobile device (like an iPhone), to a
device that can be installed in your vehicle or to a personal FLO TV
device. It broadcasts over the wireless networks, so can receive
programming where cell phones have a signal. Sadly, they do not currently
provide captioning and apparently do not intend to do so in the near
future. You can learn more about FLO TV at
http://www.flotv.com/ .
For more information on the captioning issue,
point your browser to
http://captionaction2.blogspot.com/2010/02/flo-tv-cant-commit-to-captioning.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2010
Senate Bill 68, as amended, became law yesterday,
May 4, when approved by Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley. In the final
version, TV closed captions must be activated, upon request, in public
areas of places of public accommodation. Thanks to bhNEWS (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bhNEWS)
for the lead on this story.
Full
story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
by Michael Grotticelli
December 2010
As more content is being produced in 3-D, the need
for captioning, now mandated by the U.S. government, has been brought to
the forefront. While all of the vendors in this category are aware of the
need to do it, very few customers have asked for it, which holds back
development. "We certainly have the capability to produce captions in 3-D
space, but we're not investing a lot in R&D until there is customer demand
and a standard specification for how to do it," said José M. Salgado,
president and CEO of Los Angeles-based SoftNI, a veteran captioning and
subtitling software provider. To be clear, the issue has to do with
closed-captioning, not necessarily "subtitling." 3-D subtitling is
typically predetermined by the content producer and is inserted into a
plane (below, on the side or on top of the screen) that's most
aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Because subtitles are simply a part of
the picture, there is no need for new technology to transmit or display
them.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2010
Disability organizations and individuals with
disabilities have filed complaints and a formal petition with the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) which reflects frustration with chronic
problems related to live captioning quality, transmission errors, and lack
of industry response to their concerns. However, without a common means of
measuring accuracy and quality, the FCC, consumers and broadcasters have
no efficient method of tracking and improving stenocaption accuracy
performance.
In spring 2010, WGBH's National Center for
Accessible Media conducted a national Web survey to query television news
caption viewers about the types of caption errors that impact their
ability to understand a live television news program. Survey results are
contributing to definition of error types and criteria for weighting and
ranking error types within a prototype automated caption accuracy
assessment system we are developing.
The majority of respondents self-identified as
deaf or late-deafened; less than a third indicated they were
hard-of-hearing. The survey presented 41 examples drawn from a wide range
of major national broadcast and cable television live news programs. These
41 examples represented 17 sub-categories of common caption error types
identified by the project team and advisors.
The Caption Accuracy Metrics Survey Final Report
has just been published on the
project website
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2010
Despite all the hoopla before the big game about
how ALL the commercials would be captioned for the first time ever, that
seems to have not been the case! The story was that all national
commercials would be captioned, but not necessarily the ones provided by
local television. I don't know for sure which ones were local, but I saw
several commercials that appeared to be national that did not include
captions. Now it appears that my impressions were correct. The full report
is available at
http://www.captions.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 2011
While you're vegging out watching the Cardinals
and eating pizza, she's furiously typing on her stenographer's keyboard to
make sure the hard-of-hearing audience can enjoy the game. A software
program simultaneously translates what she's typing into English and
transmits it to wherever the broadcast is originating from, then it gets
sent to your TV. "It isn't just the guy on the treadmill in the gym
watching the basketball game," Baker said. Last week, she captioned
weather coverage along the East Coast as millions braced for the arrival
of Hurricane Irene. Baker said she's inspired to do her job because of a
friend in Manhattan -- and the millions like him -- clinging to the TV for
forecast information and relying on captioning because they're hard of
hearing. The audience will read what she's typed within seconds, mistakes
and all. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2011
Five years ago, in October 2006, several leading
disability organizations filed for a "Review of the Bureau Order" and a
"Petition for Emergency Stay" at the FCC in regard to what was referred to
as "the Anglers' Order." Today, the FCC overturned the Angler's Order
and the other 300 exemptions to providing captioning on TV that were based
on the Anglers' Order. By way of background -- to illustrate how damaging
the Anglers' Order was, the FCC, from 1997, when it first adopted closed
captioning rules, until mid-2005 -- received fewer than 75 petitions for
undue burden exemptions by providers wanting to be exempted from the
closed captioning requirement. It generally handled these on a
case-by-case basis as the law required. However, from October 2005 through
August 2006, the FCC received over 600 such petitions requesting exemption
of TV captioning. In an unexpected and unprecedented move, the Consumer &
Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB) granted two of these petitions in the
Anglers' Order, and during the two weeks that followed, granted an
additional 301 petitions in reliance on the reasoning of that Order. The
Order became known as "the Anglers' Order" as this was the name of one of
the petitioners requesting an exemption. CGB, at that time, appeared to
create a new exemption based on "hardship" and reasoned that non-profit
status and assertions by petitioners of the non-commercial nature of their
programming was sufficient for exemption from captioning of their TV
programs.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
November 2011
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is
reversing a decision that gave religious broadcasters an exemption to an
FCC rule requiring closed captioning for the deaf and hearing impaired.
Broadcasters currently exempt from providing closed captioning have 90
days to comply, or obtain another exemption. The Telecommunications Act of
1996 required the FCC to establish a suitable timetable by which
televisionbroadcasters and equipment manufacturers would be required to
provide closed captioning, or a text transcription of the program provided
for those who are deaf or hearing impaired. The FCC required broadcasters
to fulfill the closed captioning requirement by January 2006, but gave an
exemption, called the "Anglers' Order," to small and medium sized
religious broadcasters.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2012
Around 80 religious programmers have filed for new
financial-hardship exemptions from closed-captioning rules. The Federal
Communications Commission changed the qualifications for exemptions last
October, and notified 590 programmers they would have to file new
petitions for exemptions granted under rules established in 2006. The
deadline for those petitions was last Wednesday. Those who failed to
petition the FCC for a new exemption had to start providing closed
captions by the next day, Thursday, Jan. 19. Previously, closed-captioning
exemptions were based on the Anglers Order, which arose from a petition
filed by "The Christian Angler Outdoors Television Show." The Anglers
order granted exemptions based on the "noncommercial nature and lack of
remunerative value" of the programming. Anglers, and another petitioner,
New Beginning, received permanent exemptions, while another 300
programmers were granted a blanket exemption based on the Angler criteria.
Advocacy groups for the deaf and hard-of-hearing pushed and subsequently
won a review the Anglers order. The commission's October ruling said it
should have considered "all of the petitioners' available resources....
not just the resources allocated for the programs for which the exemptions
were sought." It rescinded the permanent exemptions and required the rest
to demonstrate financial hardship.
Full Story
