Closed captioning

Closed captioning (CC) allows deaf and hard of hearing / hearing-impaired people, people learning English as an additional language, people first learning how to read, and others to read a transcript or dialouge of the audio portion of a video, film, or other presentation. As the video plays, text captions are displayed that transcribe, although not always verbatim, what is said and by whom and indicate other relevant sounds.

Related Topics:
Deaf - Hard of hearing / hearing-impaired - English as an additional language

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The term "closed" in closed captioning means that not all viewers see the captions—only those who decode or activate them. This is distinguished from "open captions," where the captions are visible to all viewers. Open captions are sometimes referred to as "in-vision" in the UK. Captions that are permanently visible in a video, film, or other medium are called "burned-in" captions.

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In the U.S. and Canada, "captions" are distinguished from "subtitles." In these countries, "subtitles" assume the viewer can hear but cannot understand the language, so they only translate dialogue and some onscreen text. "Captions" aim to describe all significant audio content, as well as "non-speech information," such as the identity of speakers and their manner of speaking. The distinction between subtitles and closed captions is not always made in the UK and Ireland, where the term "subtitles" is a general term.

Related Topics:
Subtitle - UK

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It has been suggested that the largest audience of closed captioning are now in fact hearing people in ESL communities. In the US, the National Captioning Institute noted that ESL learners were the largest group buying decoders in the late 1980s and early 1990s (before built-in decoders became a standard feature of U.S. television sets).

Related Topics:
ESL - National Captioning Institute

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