Foundations and Corporations Given Opportunity to Help Hearing Impaired

Television has provided information, excitement and entertainment to American families for over thirty years, but for many people, the sounds of the television simply could not be heard. In 1985 approximately 9% of the American population was hearing impaired, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Because of closed captioning, those who have hearing loss are now able to enjoy a majority of popular prime time TV shows, as well as the presidential debates.

One organization is responsible for providing 90 percent of the closed captioning for the shows we see on TV, and it is a non-profit organization that has been around since 1979. Even captioning for thousands of movies which are available on videotape has been provided by the organization. One way to explain it is like this; out of six stations that show 18 hours worth of programs a day, only 12 or 13 percent of them offer closed captioning. Shows for children make up one third of all those subtitled programs.

A major part of this organization's work is convincing programmers, producers, and the network executives to make sure their programs are captioned. Sadly, that's not such an easy job to do. Though closed captioning has been available for thirty years, many producers are only now starting to understand the huge market that is available through closed captioning. Most are simply unfamiliar with the deaf and hearing impaired and what might be done to make their life easier.

The audience for closed captions is estimated to be at almost one million, a fact that makes some executives reluctant to provide subtitles for their programs. Those numbers have been based on the information from the decoder, which makes it possible for people in 150,000 homes to see the captioning. However, they expect that number to rise by some 30,000 by the end of the year.

The programs that are captioned are based on the number of viewers that need the feature in order to enjoy the programs. The cost of providing closed captioning to a one hour program can run from $1,500 to $2,200. This number varies because each captioning job is uniquely based on how long they have to produce the captions as well as how hard the script is.

Other decisions must be made as well, such as when a caption should appear on the screen and what length of time will be needed for viewers to read it. Films which include long action sequences are easier to caption, generally. Creating subtitles for "Miami Vice" will take less time than creating subtitles for "The Lion in Winter".

There are several means of funding for closed captioning, including the public broadcasting service, the Department of Education, and other foundations. Most of the time the funds are split into three parts, with each organization paying their part to caption the program. One reason the audience is so small is because the decoder can be a costly item. It cost $280 when it first came out, in 1980. The cost of a decoder is now less than $250, usually around $200.

Grants from foundations or corporations can help provide decoders for low income deaf or hearing impaired Americans who might not otherwise be able to pay. There are programs in some major cities that allow decoders to be provided to lower income families for as little as $35, it is a hope that at some point in the future decoders will be inbuilt to TV's, this will happen when the technology becomes cheap enough.

Hearing loss is a disability that is not noticed by many individuals in the U.S.. The reason for this is because they are isolated by people in our country, so they tend to withdraw and stay out of the way of society, and that isn't fair. One of the real high points of having closed captioning is the fact it creates an opportunity for a family to come together as well as serving the hearing impaired and deaf individuals.

Go to this site for further information on hearing test Blue Mountains/Lithgow. Help on hearing test Tweed Heads is easy to get.