Resources

A: We’ve had reports of words or phrases getting “stuck” and repeating over and over on different programs and channels. Recent examples included “William Shatner” for a Los Angeles viewer, “Barack Obama” for a Seattle viewer, and “Kamala Harris” seen repeatedly by a viewer in Phoenix. In all cases, the common connection was that they were DirecTV users. If you see the same name or word appearing in your captions randomly, rest assured, nobody is doing this on purpose. Contact DirecTV, or perform a hard reset on your primary box − that is, turn off the box, unplug it, wait 30 seconds, and plug it back in. That seems to work.

A: It is VITAC’s policy to caption everything we hear, unless expressly forbidden to do so by the network or station. When captioning live television, our captioners, who occasionally mishear audio like the rest of us, are instructed as follows: “when in doubt, leave it out.” Read more about our profanity policy.

A: Many YouTube captions are automatically generated via automatic speech recognition (ASR) software, meaning a machine “listens” to the audio and attempts to translate that to text. However, even the most advanced speech recognition programs lack human intelligence and are, in essence, a guess by machines at the spoken word. Without having a human eye or ear monitoring the machine for such things as accuracy and completeness, ASR often fails to live up to expectations.

A: Changing the captioned language on your TV, laptop, or iPad can vary depending on the platform or media player, but general process is similar on most of them and usually begins with finding the “CC” icon that indicates closed captioning features. English programs that are captioned in English and Spanish include Sunday Night Football and “Dateline” on NBC. To access the Spanish captions, find your CC menu and select CC3. CC1 always hosts the primary caption language, and CC3 hosts Spanish, when available. “Over-the-top” streaming media services like Netflix, iTunes, and Hulu all provide captions or subtitles in multiple languages. Check their accessibility menus for details.

A: Laws such as Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act or Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 are in place to provide individuals with tools to be successful. The workplace accommodations that a company can make for its deaf and hard-of-hearing employees include captioning all video and audio communication, bringing in a sign language interpreter, providing text phones, and using more written memos and company communications (or, in some cases, a mix of all of the above). Check out this guide from the Job Accommodation Network through the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy that outlines common accommodations and offers suggestions on how to request services.

A: The Federal Communications Commission established rules for TV closed captioning to ensure that viewers who are deaf and hard of hearing have full access to programming and to provide guidance to video programming distributors and programmers. The rules apply to all television programming with captions, and require that captions be: Accurate – Captions must match the spoken words in the dialogue and convey background noises and other sounds to the fullest extent possible. Synchronous – Captions must coincide with their corresponding spoken words and sounds to the greatest extent possible, and must be displayed on the screen at a speed that can be read by viewers. Complete – Captions must run from the beginning to the end of the program to the fullest extent possible. Properly placed – Captions should not block other important visual content on the screen, overlap one another or run off the edge of the video screen.

A: Audio description offers blind and low-vision audiences the opportunity to enjoy television or film programming. It is a narrative description of onscreen actions, visual cues (such as characters and costumes), and text appearing in graphics or the video. The audio description track can be found on a secondary audio channel available on most television sets, accessible through your cable or satellite box.

A: When it comes to prerecorded captioning, VITAC captions in the case requested by our customers. Most live captioning, such as what you see for news and sports, is captioned in all capital letters in order to retain the speed at which realtime captioners are required to caption, but we can caption live in mixed case if the customer requests it.

A: If your captions appear irregular, meaning they are severely delayed, include strange characters and misspellings, are jumping from one place to another on-screen, or are missing altogether and you know you’ve turned them on, you may need to do a soft or hard reset on your cable or satellite box. As these are commonly transmission issues, your video programming distributor (cable provider, broadcaster, or satellite provider) must pass through captions, and make sure they’re passing through correctly. To report a problem, see “How can I complain about captions?” above.

A: The Federal Communications Commission only requires internet protocol-delivered content to be captioned if it aired on television, including clips and montages of shows that aired on television. A lot of subscription-video-on-demand services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon caption all original programming so that it is accessible for everyone.

A: Part of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Caption Quality Best Practices is that closed captioning must be synchronous with the program audio, but must also be on screen long enough to be read completely. With realtime captioning, captions are usually 5 to 9 seconds behind, as the captioner takes the time to listen and “write” or respeak what they’re hearing (2-3 seconds), captions are transmitted to the networks (1 second), and encoded into the video transmission signal (4-5 seconds.) Prerecorded captioning shouldn’t have any delay at all, and should appear onscreen synchronously with program audio. If you’re noticing a significant delay in closed captioning to where it’s hindering your understanding of the program, this could be a transmission issue with your video programming distributor (cable provider, broadcaster, or satellite provider). Per the FCC, programming distributors must pass through captions, and make sure they’re passing through correctly. To report a problem, see “How can I complain about captions?” above.

A: There are two types of closed captioning − live and prerecorded. You see live realtime captions during sporting events and newscasts programs that are happening live. Live programming is captioned by specially trained realtime captioners who listen to a program as it is airing and write or respeak what they hear, often at speeds up to 250 words per minute. These words feed into customized software which transmits the captions to display them live on your television screen. Prerecorded captions are created by highly trained captioners who listen to the program audio, transcribe words, sound effects, and music to give you a full sense of what is happening in the audio track of the program. Captions are timed to sync with the program audio and placed to match the speakers on the screen. The program is then watched all the way through to ensure accuracy in the timing, transcription, and overall readability.

A: If you’re seeing strange characters and severe misspellings in your closed captioning, this is referred to as “garbling.” You may also be experiencing what is called “paired errors,” which occurs when two letters or characters are dropped out in repeated intervals. During some programs, errors aren’t as severe, and it’s still easy to figure out the context. For instance: >> I WALKED DOWN THE STREET becomes >> I WALK DO THE STREET. But with other errors, it’s nearly impossible to figure out: >> I WALKED DOWN THE STREET becomes >> I WKED DOWTH STRT. This could be happening for a variety of reasons, but the most common is that it is a transmission issue with your video programming distributor (cable provider, broadcaster, or satellite provider). Per the Federal Communications Commission, the programming distributor must pass through captions and make sure they’re passing through correctly. To report a problem, see “How can I complain about captions?” above.

A: For TV, use your television remote to access the closed captioning menu through cable or satellite box. Select “Off.” For subscription-based platforms like Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, or Hulu, accessing the caption menu varies based on the device that you are using (Roku, AppleTV, Smart TV, etc). We recommend consulting your device instruction

A: New television remote controls are required to have a “first level” caption button. That is, you should not have to navigate through a menu to find the CC button. Viewers with voice-controlled cable boxes can turn captions on by saying “captions on.” If you’re not watching standard television, please see the programmer’s guide for your device or platform. For example, turning on captions for Netflix on an Apple TV is different than turning on captions for the same service on your computer.

A: It is the shared responsibility of the video programming distributor (cable provider, broadcaster, or satellite provider) and the broadcaster (network/channel) to pass through captions, and both must provide a captioning contact. Both must publish captioning contacts on their website, and distributors also must include that information on your invoices. If you have a specific concern about a VITAC-captioned program, email us at marketing@vitac.com. You may also file a complaint directly with the Federal Communications Commission.