| The first television program to be captioned was Julia | | | | reasons lie in the fact that today's culture of |
| Child's world renowned cooking show, "The French | | | | cartoon-watchers and product consumers can |
| Chef." Since then the captioning process has opened | | | | become more educated simply through captions. |
| the door for the hard-of-hearing, allowing a full, | | | | When watching a weekly cooking show or a thrilling |
| rewarding television experience, much like a person | | | | horror film, how often do you recognize a new word? |
| with full hearing capabilities and no hearing loss. Today | | | | That's right, usually you don't quite catch it, and as |
| the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has | | | | watching television is, more often than not a source of |
| played a large role in regulating television captions, and | | | | entertainment, one doesn't jump up from the couch or |
| with the Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990, all | | | | bed to go look the word up in the dictionary that they |
| televisions larger than 13 inches sold in the United | | | | think they may have possibly heard and didn't |
| States after July 1993, must have an internal decoder | | | | recognize. With captioning, vocabulary is improved |
| to allow for the option of closed-captions. | | | | almost on a subconscious level, and unlike the |
| Plus, as the growth of the HDTV has taken the | | | | introduction of words through reading, when watching |
| television world by storm, currently captions are | | | | television, much less thought and attention are |
| available on certain televisions which can even be | | | | necessary; words along the bottom of the screen are |
| adjusted to meet a viewer's personal preferences | | | | soaked-in with almost no mind effort. The other, |
| including font and color. Advances that were taken | | | | almost-obvious, but also more than likely overlooked |
| lightly in the world of captioning, are now being taken | | | | plus of captions, is an increase in spelling knowledge. |
| into more and more of a higher account. As the world | | | | Several high-functioning, intelligent individuals are the |
| of captioning grows, the competitive business of video | | | | first to say "I'm no speller," which although is no crime, |
| captioning requires video, dvd, and those within the | | | | can often have a negative effect in professional and |
| movie industry to find efficient and meticulous | | | | everyday situations, making those with intelligence |
| captioning services that will not only benefit those | | | | appear quite the opposite! |
| hard-of-hearing, but all other television watchers as | | | | This overview only touches the surface of the positive |
| well. With proper captioning services, the | | | | effects of proper captioning. To take the best |
| contemporary American television viewer can gain a | | | | advantage of these lifelong aspects of educational |
| better understanding of plot, characters, and other | | | | growth and the benefits for the hard-of hearing, |
| essential pieces of every day television programs and | | | | producers and broadcasters absolutely must set their |
| movies. | | | | goals one bar higher. Places such as the Video |
| How else can captions be considered beneficial? | | | | Caption Corporation, located in upstate New York, is |
| There are an abundance of reasons as to why | | | | the place to receive just this. |
| captions are helpful, but some of the less obvious | | | | |