Learning Center

Life, Acting, and Captioning

[Editor's note: This article was written in 2004 and has since been archived. Some content may be outdated.]

Did You Know that Captioning for Television Started With the Captioned Films for the Deaf Program?

[Editor's note: Ms. McCann wrote this article in 2002. For a recent biography of the author, please refer to the end of this post.]

Assistive Listening Technology and the Captioned Media Program

Captioning is a vitally important way of making information available to people with a hearing loss. Another method of providing access that can also be used with captioning is assistive listening technology.

Captioned Media: Teacher Perceptions of Potential Value for Students with No Hearing Impairments

This national survey conducted by Frank G. Bowe and Aviele Kaufman in 2002 focuses on 359 special educators from 45 states found that most perceive value in captioned media for some special education students, notably those who are English Language Learners and those classified as having specific learning disabilities. Results suggest that captioning technologies be explored in more depth, particularly since they are available to classroom teachers at the touch of a button.

Word Frequency in Captioned Television

Written by Carl Jensema and Michele Rovins. This paper states, "There are more than 500,000 words in the English language, but a person who masters the use of 250 words . . . will recognize more than two-thirds of all words shown in television captions." For people with limited reading skills, this is a great advantage. The list was created by taking scripts from the various television programs utilized in the study and combining them. Such words include: "the," "before," "around," "please," "yeah," and many others. The table showing the complete list of words is located on the last page of the article.

Final Report: Presentation Rate and Readability of Closed Captioned Television

Written by Carl Jensema in 1997. Objectives of this report were to (1) establish an advisory board, (2) establish a measurement system, (3) obtain and analyze off-air data, (4) develop video materials, (5) obtain and analyze child data, (6) obtain and analyze adult data, (7) compose the final report, (8) disseminate findings, and (9) submit all monthly reports, as well as the final report. Appendix includes three journal articles produced by the project, including: "Presentation Speed and Vocabulary in Closed-Captioned Television" (1995), "Closed-Caption Television Presentation Speed and Vocabulary" (1996), and "Viewer Reaction to Different Captioned Television Speeds" (1997).

The State of Closed Captioning Services in the United States: An Assessment of Quality, Availability, and Use

Final Report: Caption Speed and Viewer Comprehension of Television Programs

Dr. Carl Jensema and Dr. Robb Burch examine speed rate and viewer understanding of closed-captioned TV programs in this 1999 research paper. Third in a study of caption rates (first one in 1996 showed medium caption rate to be 141 wpm; second one in 1998 showed rate increased to 145 wpm), this study shows that the reading rate which persons who are deaf or hard of hearing are most comfortable with is 220 wpm. Asks two questions for the basis of this research: "What caption speeds are likely to lead to the highest understanding and retention of information?" and "How do these optimal caption speeds vary with age, sex, degree of hearing loss, education, household size, and frequency of caption viewing?" Includes tables and figures.

Final Report: The Relation Between Eye Movement and Reading Captions and Print by School Age Deaf Children

This 2003 report by Carl Jensema states that the average hearing child spends 30 hours a week TV viewing and that this same amount of "TV time" is spent by their deaf peers. Because of this, it is estimated that deaf children spend more time reading captions than they do printed material. This study, three years in the making, examines how reading captions relates to the overall reading skills development of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Various tables and figures accompany this article. Research was conducted at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf.

Time Spent Viewing Captions on Television Programs

This 1999 paper by Carl Jensema, Ramalinga Sarma Danturthi, and Robert Burch reports on the eye movements of 23 deaf subjects, ages 14 to 61, while they watched captioned television programs. It discloses that the viewers in the study spent about 84 percent (%) of their television viewing time looking at the program's captions, at the video picture 14% of the time, and off the video 2% of the time. ("Off video" was due to eye blinks and normal eye movement.) Concludes that much exposure to print was "bound to influence reading skills." (Note: The DCMP educational and training materials are selected in large part because of their pictorial component, and thus it is imperative that the presentation rate of captions not prohibit opportunity to learn from this component.)

A Note on Carrying Captions Over a Shot Change

This paper, written in 1999 by Carl Jensema, Ph.D. and Ramalinga Sarma Danturthi, Ph.D., retraces the research done by Dr. Kenneth G. O'Bryan at the Children's Television Workshop and his creation of the term "shot change." A shot change refers to a sudden change in the picture shown on the screen. His studies suggest that when this occurs, the viewer goes back and rereads the caption. In this article, Jensema and Danturthi put his theory to the test. Results conclude that viewers do not always react the same way to a shot change; hence, eye movement is unpredictable. Includes eye movement diagrams.

Captions and Reading Rates of Hearing Impaired Students

This 1980 paper, written by Edgar Shroyer and Jack Birch, examines the results of a study in which 185 randomly selected hearing-impaired students from residential schools participated. Indicates that normal extempore speech is measured at 159 words per minute (wpm), and that speech and language on television and films approximates this rate. Finds that if speech on television/films is synchronized in content and speed with captions, approximately 84 percent (%) of hearing-impaired students are not able to read it. (That is, 84% of the students in the study possess reading rates below the 159 wpm of extempore speech.) Notes that other research indicates that the linguistic level of captions would further significantly compounded students' reading rate difficulties. Also finds that the mean wpm reading rate of primary students in their study is 123.7.

A Study of the Eye Movement Strategies Used in Viewing Captioned Television

Closed Captioned Prompt Rates: Their Influence on Reading Outcomes

This paper, written in 1995 by Martha J. Meyer and Yung-bin Benjamin Lee, examines a study in which 140 reading-deficient students (from fourth, fifth, and sixth grades) were randomly assigned each to either: (a) an average-paced closed-captioned video, (b) a slow-paced closed-captioned video, or (c) printed text with no video. Results indicated significantly more learning occurs for those students using captioned video as compared to those utilizing only traditional print materials. Additionally, students assigned to the slow-paced prompt rate retained significantly more information than those viewing the average-paced captioning. (Causing them to conclude that prompt rates should be designed so that children with various reading speeds have enough time to read and process the information.)

Advanced Television Closed Captioning Research Report

This 1998 report, prepared by the National Center for Accessible Data (NCAD) and the WGBH Research Department, discusses Advanced Television (ATV), a product which would allow the utilization of captioning features, such as flexibility of caption placement, color choices, and controlled reading rates. Fonts chosen for this study include: Helvetica, Times, and Monaco, with Helvetica being the clear choice of participants. Also includes reactions to the mix of an upper- and lowercase character format as opposed to all caps, and presents feedback on the two types of character spacing: mono and proportional. Photos of television clips that show various captioning styles are included, although difficult to read. Lots of participant feedback.