Who benefits from captioned programming?
The benefits of providing captioned programming are twofold: it affords deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers greater access to televised programming, while offering the producer a much larger viewing audience. There are currently over one million deaf people in the United States, and over 28 million people affected by hearing loss. Captioning has also become a valuable tool for people learning English as a second language and those working to improve their literacy skills. The use of captioning has also become common in gyms, airports, bars and other public places where the audio cannot be heard or would be intrusive.
