Closed
captioning displays the dialogue, narration and sound effects of a video
program as words
on a television screen, similar to subtitles on a movie. Unlike
subtitled movies, closed captioning allows the viewer to choose whether
or not to display the captions that are transmitted within the broadcast
signal in encoded (or closed) form. A decoder built into or attached
to a television set is used to "open" the captions and display the words
on the TV screen.
NCI developed the
closed captioning service to provide 28 million people who are deaf
or hard of hearing in the United States with access to the wide range
of information and entertainment on television. Millions of other people
can also benefit from watching captioning television. These audiences
include: people learning English as a second language, young children
learning to read, remedial readers, illiterate adults, and people watching
television in noisy environments such as restaurants, bars and airports.
More information
can be found in this section on how captioning is created, the educational
uses of captioning, relevant laws, and other topics for the captioned
television audience.
