Everyone who needs open or closed captions to understand the TV, DVDs and web videos knows captioning services in general could stand substantial improvement. Ever since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated captioning for almost all television shows, many hard-of-hearing people have come to depend on them. On my home set I keep the “CC1” setting on all the time. But that doesn’t mean the captions always work. In fact, as often as not the captions provided by broadcasters — especially for talk shows, the news, or other live broadcasts — are woefully delayed or infuriatingly wrong. But I recently realized that bellyaching to family and friends was not going to result in better captions, and I discovered there’s a better way to complain. You can start with the FCC itself — there’s a simple online form on the FCC.gov web site that makes it easy to detail your complaint. The form has room for plenty of information, so make sure you jot down the specific problem you experienced, at what time, on what station, and with what television show. And make sure you have the contact information for your cable or broadcast service provider.
All the complaints in the world are worthless if they fall on deaf ears. That’s why it was gratifying to hear a report on how seriously the FCC takes captioning complaints, and what they do with them, from a top FCC official at a session on captioning at the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) Conference. In a writeup on the NAD blog, Karen Peltz Strauss of the FCC was quoted saying captioning complaints filed with the FCC go into a database that provides feedback on specific offenders as well as trend information on what kinds of captioning issues are most important to hard-of-hearing viewers. The FCC matches up the feedback from the complaint forms with the lobbying feedback from activist organizations such as NAD to set rules and policy.
A surprise guest, Karen Peltz Strauss, recognized NAD’s ongoing efforts, “NAD is doing an extraordinary job helping people file grievances. The FCC wants to help you. File with the FCC if your complaint is television related.” Strauss announced a new registry of video programming distributors. “If your complaint is about a service provided by Comcast, Verizon, RCN, or the TV networks such as CBS, NBC, or ABC, go to the FCC site at fcc.gov.” A new website will be launching soon making it even easier. The FCC really wants people to use the registry. If you’re having problems or issues with television captions, please make a claim. Strauss can be reached at the email address: karen.strauss@fcc.gov
The FCC has tremendous power over any broadcaster with a license to use public airwaves, and its administrative rulings can result in immediate solutions to short-term problems and improvements in service over the long term. So it’s worth spending the time filling out that form.
At the same time, there are a few other sources of bad captions that the government has less to do with — especially movie theaters and producers of DVDs and service providers such as Netflix who provide video content through the mail and over the internet. It’s important to raise your voice directly with these providers when you have a problem — sometimes they are immediately responsive, but at the worst they will listen to the feedback and eventually do something about it if they hear about the same problem from enough people. With the Baby Boomers hitting that age where they could use captions more often than not, you can expect more and more people to have those same complaints. NAD has good resource information on how to lodge official complaints about a variety of access topics. And there are ways to get directly involved in advocacy for more government action, such as the Caption Action 2 site on Facebook, which already has nearly 15,000 members. Or you can join the advocates pushing Congress to mandate that all web videos be captioned.
It’s nice to know the outlets for your agitation are there, but they will only have an impact if you use them. It’s nice to know that you do have a vote. Make sure yours counts!
An Official Complaint About Poor Video Captions Is Actually A Vote For Better Captions ? Make Your Vote Count!…
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