ATV
Closed Captioning
EVALUATION OF CURRENT CAPTIONS
Before viewing the caption features tape, participants who were familiar with current closed captions--mainly those with some or complete hearing loss--were asked to rate the usefulness, appearance and readability of today's closed captions. They were also asked to comment on their likes, dislikes and suggestions for improving current captions.
Not surprisingly, hearing impaired participants rated current captions very highly for "usefulness." Most now watch only those programs that are captioned. Many stated that captioning had "opened up a new world to them." Appearance and readability received somewhat lower--but still high--scores.
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Current Captions
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All
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Deaf
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HoH
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Hearing
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Men
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Women
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Under 50
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Over 50
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No PC
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Usefulness
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9.0
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9.5
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8.5
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7.0
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8.6
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9.3
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8.6
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9.6
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9.0
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Appearance
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7.8
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8.2
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6.5
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8.0
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8.2
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7.5
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7.7
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7.9
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7.8
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Readability
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7.6
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8.0
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6.0
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8.5
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8.0
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7.3
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7.6
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7.6
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8.0
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Question: What are the qualities you like about (current) captions?
Participants mainly agreed that current captions are very readable.
They're easy to read with the black background behind the captions.
I like the readable letters. They're readable when evenly spaced, not rushes or pauses.
The ability to accurately convey conversation, environmental sounds, "audible" features of a program that would otherwise be missed.
They're easy to read, clear and sharp.
The contrast but not too much glaring. They are able to give me the information in a pretty relaxing manner.
I like the white on black. The letters show up clearly and have good readability.
Question: What are the qualities you dislike about (current) captions?
Participants often stated that captions cover up important information sometimes placed at the bottom of a screen. News programs were singled out as a prime example of this.
The sharper they are, the better.
When a person's name appears on the bottom of the TV. The closed caption should move to the top so that I would not miss people's names or town's names.
They cover up important information.
Blocks names of the people or other text on the screen when in the lower middle of the picture. That does not help. Indicate who's talking. Quality is inconsistent from program to program.
Sometimes I have seen them in different part of the screen. I like them at the bottom, like subtitles.
Question: How could (current) captions be improved?
Participants had a variety of suggestions for the improvement of captions but showed little agreement.
Make them more readable with better placement and more accuracy.
Relocate captions whenever a person's identification appears.
Pick up the speed to what is being said. Remove the blacked out area.
Have an area just below the picture for captions, perhaps, but not sure if this will interfere with looking at the picture. I like to see if other fonts, colors of differing contrast make it easier to read and view at the same time.
More identifying of sound effects, accents, voices, etc.
Maybe something so the black box isn't as obvious.
Changing the size of the captions.
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