High quality standards for closed captions are “critical”...
High quality standards for closed captions are “critical” to making video accessible as mandated in the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA), said representatives of several consumer groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing in a meeting…
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last week with FCC staff and industry representatives, according to an ex parte filing. “We urge the Commission to set minimum technical and non-technical standards for captions that include completeness, accuracy, readability, and synchronicity with the audio portion of the captioned program -- areas where problems remain widespread,” said the filing from Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the National Association of the Deaf and the Hearing Loss Association of America. The lack of quality standards for captions “incentivizes video programmers to seek out the cheapest possible captioning services without regard to quality,” said the consumer groups. This in turn hurts the market for well-trained captioners, the groups said. The commission should reexamine the exemptions to caption requirements it currently allows, and “ease the burden of the captioning complaint process for consumers,” the groups said. They also said the FCC should reexamine allowing Electronic Newsroom Technique, which the consumer groups said “often denies viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing access to critical information from unscripted breaking news, weather, and emergency reporting."