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THREAD: Captions are one of the greatest inclusive design success stories.
The first closed captioning decoder, made in 1980, cost ~$750 in today's dollars. TV not included.
That provided access to 15 hours a week of captioned broadcasts TOTAL across ABC, NBC and PBS.
The first closed captioning decoder, made in 1980, cost ~$750 in today's dollars. TV not included.
That provided access to 15 hours a week of captioned broadcasts TOTAL across ABC, NBC and PBS.
Today, thanks to US law, every >13" TV sold since 1993 has a decoder. Every TV show broadcast since 2002 has required captions. Those captions now have to carry over to online distribution. And as of 1/1/19, video games require captions, too.
Not a bad 40 years, I'd say.
Not a bad 40 years, I'd say.
Captions help D/deaf and hard of hearing people, obviously. But they also help people who don't speak a language fluently, or don't grok a specific accent, or have other issues processing speech, or, like me, focus better when we can read the words.
So, here's the awesome thing: Gen Z 💞😍LOVES🥰💖 captions. Some may have auditory processing disorder, which often comes with ADHD. But they've also literally never known a world without ubiquitous captions, so there's no stigma 🤫 to taking advantage.
medium.com/s/the-upgrade/…
medium.com/s/the-upgrade/…
The other big driver for captions? Social media. @AOC uses @clipomatic to caption her Instagram posts. (#ForTheGram) And plenty of others are now captioning their videos to grab people's attention before they scroll off the timeline. All good uses, IMO.
tl;dr CAPTION YOUR CONTENT. Your videos, conferences, games, whatever. It doesn't matter if you don't know a D/deaf/HoH viewer. They're there, and they have a ton of friends and fellow travelers. People need them. People want them. And they're tired of asking. (fin)
