It's Finally Easier For Low Income Hearing Impaired To Buy A Decoder
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. The National Center for Health Statistics has stated that 21.2 million people suffered from hearing loss in 1985 - almost 10% of the entire population of the US. These days the hearing impaired can watch some of their favorite prime time shows and all the presidential debates because of closed captioning.
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. This same group has also done the subtitles for thousands of movies that are now available on videotape or DVD's. Look at it this way - if you are talking about six stations that run 18 hours of programming a day, around 13 percent of these programs offer closed captioning. Out of all the shows that are closed captioned, children's programs make up a third.
The organization that provides the closed captioning also must convince the directors of the network to add captioning to their programs. However as you can imagine this is no easy task. For many networks the deaf market is something they have never really considered. In fact, they only realized what people with hearing loss and deafness required, after we spoke with them.
Some of them expressed reluctance at this time to caption their programs because the current estimate for a close captioned audience is close to one million people. 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. By the end of this year, that number is expected to add another 30,000 homes.
It's like the old chicken and egg question - the more shows that allow closed captioning, the more viewers you'll have using closed captioning, and so the more shows the networks will decide to close caption. One problem is that it costs anywhere from $1,500 to $2,2000 to add captioning to a program that lasts an hour. Also influencing the cost are such variables as how long it takes to produce those captions as well as how difficult 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. Faster captioning is required for action films. As an example, the script for a movie like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" calls for a different amount of subtitles than "A Man for All Seasons."
There are several means of funding for closed captioning, including the public broadcasting service, the Department of Education, and other foundations. Many foundations will pay for a certain amount of the captioning expenses, providing that other institutions provide some money as well. One reason the audience is so small is because the decoder can be a costly item. It was first introduced in 1980, and was for sale at $280. Most decoders today cost less than $250 and the average is right around $200.
We seek out corporations and foundations which offer grants to provide decoders in the homes of those people who have compromised hearing and are considered low income. Some of our country's largest cities are participating in our programs, that allow a charge of only $35 for the decoder. As technology evolves, we are hopeful that the cost of the decoder will continue to decline, someday reaching a cost that allows TV manufacturers to see the benefit in adding a decoder capability into one or more of their TV models.
Hearing loss is a disability that is not noticed by many individuals in the U.S.. The invisible nature of the disability often means that the deaf or hearing impaired are often isolated from the culture at large, despite the fact that they comprise the largest group of physically disabled people. Along with the obvious benefits that closed captioning brings to people with hearing impairment and deafness, it also allows for a uniting of families.
by: bernardi44
Items Cross Paths With Barcode Scanners Every Step Of The Way Watch Out When Using E-codes Barcode Scanners Deserve A Little More Appreciation Watch out when using E-Codes Discount Voucher Codes Dermajuv Discount Code - Save Over 50% Big Savings & Discounts With Smallclic.co.uk Vouchers, Smallclic.co.uk Voucher Codes, Smallclic.co.u Big Big Savings With Husbands.com Coupons, Husbands.com Coupon Codes, Husbands.com Discount Coupons Stand To Gain From Icd 10 Codes Discount voucher codes The Guru Code Launch Top Symbol Barcode Scanner Stand to Gain from ICD 10 Codes