What are the benefits of closed captioning?
Closed captions provide a critical link to news, entertainment, and information for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, enabling these individuals to be part of the cultural mainstream of our society. For individuals whose native language is not English, English language captions have also been used to improve comprehension and fluency in this language. In addition, studies have shown that captions have helped children learn to read and have improved literacy skills. In a professional or social setting, captioning allows people to still participate in broadcast programming with the audio portion of the program turned down. For broadcasters, captioning represents access to many new groups and audiences while providing a valuable public service. Viewers may select to watch closed captions through their remote controls or on-screen displays.
