Captioning: Universal Design for Language Access

During COVID, many people relied upon virtual meet-ups like Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet for business meetings, family interactions, and even social events like book clubs and "parties." After some initial trials, almost all of the virtual options implemented captioning to facilitate participation for those who are deaf or hard of hearing (and everyone else). Many people realized how helpful captioning was and began using it more in other settings. It is now typical to see people watching videos on their pads with the captioning turned on, more captioned showings at live theatrical events, and even captioning portrayed at sporting events on Jumbotrons. With the general public now more aware of how captioning benefits everyone, we're seeing more opportunities for people with hearing loss.The ACI Alliance uses captioning at a recent conference to provide greater accessibility to presenters' speech for all audience members, including those with hearing impairment.VISUALIZING THE SPOKEN WORD Hearing loss impacts many aspects of communication and socialization. A trip to a restaurant or an invite to a movie may become a stressful event for someone with challenges hearing in noise or hearing words and sentences clearly. Communication and listening are generally easiest when it occurs face to face and in a well-lit, quiet room. Unfortunately, most social situations fail to meet these criteria. For many people, having access to a written form of language can help ease communication in these cases. CLOSED CAPTIONING Captioning conveys meaning visually by providing a word-for-word transcript of conversations as well as sound effects including music. Spoken words are displayed in a written form so that someone can read along. The technology is mandatory for nearly all broadcasting in English and Spanish that airs on U.S. television and Internet videos. While originally the idea of captioning was to support people who were deaf or hard of hearing, captioning has become wildly popular with people with typical hearing. Captions allow people to watch social media videos without sound on and make television viewing easier for many people whose preferred language is not the language in which the show was originally produced. Videos that are not captioned are now accessible to the millions of people worldwide with hearing loss and may lose potential viewers. Not only is captioning helpful, but it also legally required in many public places and venues. Lawsuits against Netflix and Hulu settled respectively in 2012 and 2016 made high-quality closed-captioned videos the standard. Academic institutions are required to provide captions for lectures and videos for students and faculty. Television programs that provide emergency information to the public, such as news stations, must have captions. Some states and cities have passed laws that all public-facing TVs in businesses must have captions turned on. Captioning is an appropriate and recognized accommodation to promote accessibility. Closed captions, however, are not all created equally. Some closed captions are professionally created and edited. Others are autogenerated and may contain errors. Autogenerated captions provide a transcript of the show or video, but other closed captions may include information about other sounds in the show or video such as song titles and lyrics, indications of meaningful sounds such as a door slamming, or other information that helps provide context and mood for a given scene. One advantage sometimes noted regarding autogenerated captioning is the speed at which the captions appear. For someone who can decipher most of the spoken words, autogenerated captions may be the preferred mode. WHERE CAN I FIND CAPTIONING? Closed Captioning may be most known for television and videos and can be found on nearly all devices with Internet connectivity for Internet videos. Captioning—either open or closed—is available at many performance venues for selected showings of plays, lectures, or comedy events. GalaPro captions play for viewing on one's pad or a theater-provided device. In some theaters, this is a stable of nearly all shows. Some venues will provide captioning for any event with advanced notice—either with a monitor on the stage or via a pad. Some movie theaters offer closed captioning options for nearly all films via various products that the viewer can see at their seat. The options include "smart glasses" or captioning stands that display captions for the viewer at his or her seat. Captioning in the future may transmit via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. At the upcoming CI2024 conference of the American Cochlear Implant Alliance, a captioning product that transmits to one's cell phone and then communicates with one's hearing aid, cochlear implant, or ear pods will be offered for the first time! It is important to contact the facility in advance to determine what accommodations are available and to arrive early to obtain any needed equipment or links and to test them before "show time." Some public facilities where captioning could potentially be found include: Movie theaters Theaters such as those for public meetings, plays, and musicals Sport arenas Travel hubs such as airports. PERSONAL CAPTIONING Other options for personal use include: Telephones. Federal requirements have helped people with hearing loss have unlimited access to landline and smartphones via a variety of products that utilize special telephones like CapTel or one's computer or pad. Captioning on mobile phones is available on products like Hamilton Mobile™ CapTel app, available for iOS or Android devices at no cost to people with hearing loss. When using Hamilton CapTel on a smartphone or tablet and not on Wi-Fi, a data plan is required. Captions are even available for Facetime calls! Conversations. There are apps available on smart phones that provide autogenerated captions of conversations near your smart phone. These can be used in one-on-one conversations, doctor's appointments, conversations at restaurants, conversations in the car (if you are not driving), and other places to ease communication. Bonus: some of these apps will save the transcript so you can go back and read it later to confirm details about appointments or plans. Video Meetings. Many of the major video meeting software groups such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet Up have captioning abilities. Some have to be turned on in advance in your settings but can caption your meeting. Newer versions may have the ability to more easily identify the speaker. Closed captions have the ability to make information more accessible for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. In some situations, it may still involve some prep work to obtain but may have a high reward for the efforts.