Manufacturers Required to Supply Technology for Closed Captioning Display

Hearing loss is felt by almost 25 million people in America, which makes it a good thing that the federal government just forced closed captioning decoders to be installed on all new televisions. Not only the hearing impaired will gain from this measure. Even if your hearing is fine, you may still find it beneficial to have closed captioning. It's evident that closed captioning assists both adults and children with hearing disabilities. But for people who are struggling to learn English, closed captioning is a godsend. Also for those learning to spell or improving their spelling can learn from closed captioning. In lieu of reading books and communicating with each other, most Americans instead watch television during that time, unlike previous generations.

While you may not get the same benefit from closed captioning as you would reading a book, it can be a slight improvement for reading skills. As required by law, all television sets made or imported in the United States after July 1993, with 13 inch or larger screens, must be equipped with the circuitry necessary for closed captioning display.

For children with hearing problems, closed captioning can really help them out, according to one preschool audiologist. Before this legislation passed, children exhibiting extreme forms of hearing loss could barely make sense of what they were watching. Even those who are not completely deaf are still missing the bulk of what's going on. It'd be the equivalent of being able to read only every fifth word or so. Closed captioning's contribution to the lives of hearing impaired individuals can be compared to that of the telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD). This translates speech done over the telephone into print.

There is another benefit to closed captioning. Even in those with no hearing impairment, reading skills can be greatly enhanced through closed captioning. Hearing and seeing the word together will help both illiterate adults and immigrants grasp English more quickly. If you really don't care for closed captioning, you can opt to turn it off if you'd like. Getting involved and staying informed about local, state and national events is so much easier for the hearing impaired now.

Closed captioning really levels the playing field. Up until now, many Americans have not had equal access to the revolution that is video. Hearing impaired people don?t access as much television programming as the average citizen. Though you can benefit from closed captioning if you suffer from any kind of hearing loss, the mother of one young, profoundly deaf woman is very grateful for it. Her daughter has learned many new things via closed captioning. As much as 35 percent of the elderly have some form of hearing loss. One mother of a young teenager strongly considered purchasing a decoder because her son's hearing loss was more than severe.

This 13 year old child learned through auditory methods. Not many would choose this theory, according to the mom. Neither lip reading nor signing are allowed in the early grades. The sounds the student picks up from their hearing aid are what they rely on. His mother says this has helped him fine tune his hearing to the point that he can have phone conversations. She got the decoder, in the end, to help him be a better reader. Usually, the written word can be seen beneath the person speaking. Italics show that the person is whispering and sound effects are spelled completely out.

The United States celebrated the 1983 Oscars for more than just the movies. This was the first time it had been broadcast with closed captioning capabilities. In 1980, 16 hours a week, ABC would run closed captioning as an experiment. Today there are over 400 hours of closed caption programming each week and this includes all of prime time on the 3 major networks. That makes around sixty percent of televisions network programming with closed captioning. there are over 2,000 home videos with closed captioning and many of the cable networks are starting to include it trying to catch up with the major networks and increase the number of TV shows which benefit from this amazing technology.

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