VITAC, a leader in closed captioning in America recently launched a new campaign to heighten awareness of the impact of captions have on many people. It is called CaptionsON. Below is what they had to say on the subject of why captions matter.
Captions matter because captions are…Below are the findings in a market research. An analyst group called Decision Analyst, Inc conducted the survey in February 2008. I cannot say I am surprised about some of these findings. There is a lot of bad captioning on TV, especially in real-time. CNN, Fox News and more real-time networks are often below acceptable standards when it comes to the quality of captioning. You should see some of the errors they make on CNN. When they were covering the death of Charlton Heston, the captioning indicated that he had Always Ear Disease. It should have been Alzheimer's disease.Source: CaptionsON.com
- Free to viewers of television and the Internet.
- Accessible to individuals living in nearly every household in the United States.
- Professionally produced in the US by highly skilled stenographers and offline captioners. Stenographers transcribe the audio portion of a live program as it is being aired and send the captions across the country in seconds. Offline captioners transcribe prerecorded programming with 100% accuracy before it airs.
- An essential service for the over 31 million individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, giving them access to the audio portion of programming on TV and the Internet.
- A tool that improves reading and listening skills of children and adults by visually tying words with sound.
- A way to strengthen language and comprehension skills for those learning English as a second language, marrying the spoken word with the written word as well as reinforcing grammar and sentence structure.
- A great way to engage and exercise the mind by challenging the viewer to focus on reading, listening and comprehending in real time
- Able to enhance family time by not only allowing all members of the household to enjoy programming at lower volume levels but also knowing the added benefits captions are bringing to everyone – regardless of age.
Key Findings:It's a great thing that VITAC is doing. The more awareness they spread, the better it will be for us. By the way, to visit the CaptionsOn website, just click here.Source: CaptionsON.com
- Eight in ten TV viewers have been exposed to captions.
- 50% of those exposed to captions proactively turn captions on some percent of their viewing time.
- Less than 1/5 of them have seen captions online (17%).
- Less than 1/3 of them report having seen captions in TV advertising (31%).
- 70% of those who never use captions said they would turn on captions if they knew about all the benefits of captions. Among those who are under 45 the percentage jumps to 81%.
- But unfortunately 47% of those who responded, when asked if they were unhappy with the quality of captions, said “yes.” And 45% of that group said that they change the channel/turn the program off when they are unhappy with the captions.
5/14/2008 5:59 PM
You really outdid yourself with this blog.. Good job putting this information out. Something that we all could be involved..
FINALLY they have a way for us to complain or methods to request of improving their work of CC. Before many of us were so frustrating of not knowing how to contact or what to do if something goes wrong when we encounter that.
APPLAUD that they are doing something (short film) to promoted the cc worldwide.. I'm all for this..
5/15/2008 12:34 AM
Neat! Exactly what we need. A reporting system.
Thanks for sharing this!
5/15/2008 1:32 AM
Thanks for sharing, Banjo...
Will send this link to some hearing friends of mine....
5/16/2008 3:04 PM
Many thanks for posting the public awareness campaign about the necessity and benefits of captions, Banjo.
This public awareness campaign for "Caption On" needs to improve little like benefiting the family household, ex.
. reduce the noises inside the residence or building while someone watch TV or during very early morning or late night
. turn captions on and let another household member to enjoy hir own stuff like piano practices or book reading without being irriated by TV's high noises during the commerical ads, etc.
. turn captions on without sound for the whole family viewing together for the reading benefit of younger generation or stimulate anyone's gray cranium
What about open captioned movies?? I am very sore for not possibly watching the new Narnia film this weekend. Sheesh!
Robert L. Mason (RLM)