Closed Captioning Blog

Question #1: Do you use (watch) closed captioning?

 

Who responded: 100% of the 345 respondents who took this survey.

 

Results: 59% (203 people) use closed captioning and 41% (142) do not.

 

Question #2: How often do you use (watch) closed captioning?

 

Who responded: 83% of respondents (286 people).

 

Results:

• 27% (76 people) said they used captioning daily.
• 26% (74 people) said they used captioning weekly.
• 16% (47 people) said they used captioning monthly.
• 31% (89 people) said they used captioning yearly.

 

Question #3: When do you use (watch) closed captioning?

 

Who responded: 77% of the respondents (264 people).

 

Results:  This was a short answer question.

 

Here were some of the most typical answers (all had various respondents):

• All day / Always / All the time / Whenever I watch TV
• Almost all the time
• At the gym
• At the airport
• Movies / DVDs / Blu-ray Disc / iTunes movies
• Financial/news shows
• All programs in other languages
• At a bar or restaurant
• At work
• When a TV character has a strong accent / unclear speech / complex dialogue / audio unclear / technical terminology
• For better understanding of programming
• At night/evening not to disturb others
• When with deaf/hard-of-hearing friends/family
• Doctor’s office
• Commencement Ceremonies
• During City Council Meetings / government meetings
• Never / I don’t
• Foreign films
• If there is a lot of noise at home
• When TV is muted
• When on the phone
• When listening to something else
• To brush up on language skills
• Listening to speeches

Quick Conclusions: As you can see there are a lot of people who watch closed captioning for other reasons that being deaf or hard of hearing.

 

Question #4: Why do you use (watch) closed captioning?

 

Who responded: 91% of the respondents (313 people).

 

Results:

• 1% (only 4 people!) said they are completely deaf.
• 5% (17 people) said they are hard of hearing.
• 8% (25 people) said their first language is not English.
• 33% (103 people) said they use captions at the gym.
• 34% (106 people) said they use captions in noisy public areas.
• 24% (76 people) said they use captions not to bother others.
• 2% (6 people) said they are learning to read.
• 9% (27 people) said they prefer watching television with captions for no particular reason.
• 43% (135 people) responded “other.”

 

Quick Conclusions: As you can see, the majority who took this survey are not deaf or hard of hearing.   Captioning is used by more people than most people think. 

 

Question #5: What is your biggest problem with closed captioning?

 

Who responded: 73% of the respondents (252 people).

 

Results:  This was a short answer question.

• Speed / lag / timing / does not keep up with dialogue / out of sync / delay
• Accuracy / Mistakes / Misspellings / doesn’t say what is actually said / Abbreviating what is said
• Positioning on the screen / blocks picture/screen / covers graphics / covers speakers’ faces
• Accuracy during live events
• Analog captioning on HD TVs on non-HD channels
• Can’t see it on some backgrounds on screen
• Font hard to read / legibility of text / lettering size
• Not all shows captioned
• Going through the menu to turn it on or off
• Hard to keep up with sometimes–too fast / hard to read
• Inconsistent formatting
• Inconsistent quality
• Distracting
• Live CC Standards used in non-live programs
• Poor quality
• Availability with HD
• Do not like roll-up captions
• None.

Quick Conclusions: Looks like caption users are asking for better, more consistent quality!  Are producers and TV stations willing to pay for it?

 

Question #6: Why don’t you use closed captioning?

 

Who responded: 61% of the respondents (209 people).

 

Results:  This was a short answer question.

 

Here were the main answers with multiple respondents each:

• I can hear / I am not deaf or hard of hearing
• I DO use it.
• I don’t need to.
• I live outside the US.
• Cannot tolerate the delay
• Hard to read / too fast
• Do not have the option on my TV set
• I have normal hearing and speak English
• Do not have cable
• Disruptive and distracting
• In the way of sports’ action
• If there are too many mistakes, I turn them off or change the channel

Quick Conclusions: Among other reasons, it appears that many hearing people that do not use captions out of necessity would use captions more often if they were of better quality and less distracting.

Question #7: What would make closed captioning better for you?

 

Who responded: 59% of the respondents (204 people).

 

Results:  This was a short answer question.

 

Here were the main answers with multiple respondents each:

• Available on more programming
• A side panel separate from the main view-screen / if did not cover the picture
• A way to re-capture on the DVR
• Ability to select where it appears on the screen
• Ability to use on programs on the internet
• CC in upper and lower case
• Annotations to know who is speaking
• Better quality / accuracy / timing / consistency
• Better font
• Easier to read
• Better captioners and caption editors
• Customizable user interface (color/font/placement)
• Different fonts and colors per person speaking
• Easier to turn on and off
• Edit out unnecessary dialogue
• Everything in pop-on style, no roll-up captions
• Look more like Karaoke screens
• If it were free to create / production of CC not so expensive
• If it could be simplified for TV producers
• If more public places turned on captioning
• More standardized
• More stringent FCC mandates
• Move based on sporting event (do not cover score)
• If one CC file would work for all media
• Nothing

Question #8: Do you know how closed captioning works?

 

Who responded: 100% of the respondents (345 people).

 

Results: 

• 78% (269 people) said they know how closed captioning works.
• 22% (76 people) said they DO NOT know how closed captioning works.

Question #9: Do you know how to display closed captioning on your television?

 

Who responded: 100% of the respondents (345 people).

 

Results: 

• 90% (309 people) said they know how to display closed captioning on their TV.
• 22% (36 people) said they DO NOT know how to display closed captioning on their TV.

Question #10: If a show does not have closed captioning does it deter you from watching the show?

 

Who responded: 99% of the respondents (341 people).

 

Results: 

 

10% (34 people) said it would deter them from watching a show.

90% (307 people) said it would NOT deter them from watching a show.

 

Quick Conclusions: My guess is that if more deaf and hard of hearing people had taken this survey the percentage would be higher for people saying that a show without captions would deter them from watching it.

 

A few additional comments from the respondents:

• It is very important that children’s programming has closed captioning.
• Internet video content should have closed captioning option.
• TV stations should monitor quality of captioning.
• People frequently comment to me about the typos.
• Market closed captioning like sidewalk ramps: IT’S GOOD FOR ALL!
• There needs to be more captioning at movie theaters.
• Off-line captioning needs to be standardized.
• There should be multi-language choices for closed captioning.
• I would like to see Spanish and English captioning simultaneously.
• Many cable boxes prevent captioning.
• Some guides say that a show is captioned when it really isn’t.
• I have spoken to too many people who think CC quality is poor.
• CC is surprisingly useful in public places for non-deaf.
• The older the baby boomers get, the more we need closed captioning!
• Closed-captioning software is too expensive.
• I find closed captioning very useful to non-English speakers to learn English.
• I wish movie downloads on-demand had captions.
• It is a great service!
• It is overlooked for commercials.
• HDTV needs captioning!

 

Thank you to everyone who participated in the closed-captioning survey.  If you would like a PDF copy of the complete survey, please e-mail me, Joanna, at info@abercap.com.