Experiencing Media with Hearing Impairments

The allure of a captivating film is universal, and we're immersed in what many call the new zenith of television. However, if you are d/Deaf or have hearing difficulties, you might encounter significant hurdles in accessing your preferred television series, the newest cinematic releases, or the most viral online videos. Here, we delve into several avenues through which individuals who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing can appreciate video content.

Achieving Equitable Access to Media

In the era of silent cinema, films were readily accessible to both hearing and d/Deaf audiences thanks to intertitles—textual cards inserted between scenes that conveyed dialogue and key plot developments. This changed dramatically with the introduction of synchronized sound, famously marked by "The Jazz Singer" in 1927. From that point onward, d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences have largely depended on captioning, or in many cases, have been entirely excluded.

The Cinema Experience

When visiting a movie theater—assuming a captioned screening is even offered at a convenient time—it can often feel as though more effort is spent struggling with an (often unreliable) CaptiView device in the cupholder than actually absorbing the film. This is a common frustration voiced by many, including public figures like Nyle DiMarco and Ace Ratcliff.

Beyond the CaptiView system, select cinemas provide specialized captioning eyewear. Technology firms and innovative startups have also entered this space. For instance, ActiView, initiated by Alex Koren, a former computer science student at Johns Hopkins University, has garnered attention by delivering access through a mobile application. This approach bypasses conventional methods, bringing captions directly to users' personal devices, enabling them to follow the movie's dialogue seamlessly. Performer Rosa Lee Timm has shared her positive experiences with ActiView.

Television Viewing

Regarding television captioning, the United States has made substantial strides since 1972, when "The French Chef" on PBS became the inaugural captioned TV show. With the enactment of the Television Decoder Circuitry Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, both in 1990, television captioning became widely adopted. In Australia, the Australian Caption Centre (ACC) started offering captions for TV programs in 1982. The UK saw the introduction of captioning in the 1970s.

Streaming Video Content

While television captioning has become standard, the online realm presents a more varied landscape. Marlee Matlin, long before becoming the youngest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actress, was inspired by "The Wizard of Oz" to pursue an acting career. She was instrumental in advocating for the Television Circuitry Decoding Act, ensuring that d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals could enjoy captioned television—including "The Wizard of Oz." However, in 2009, when she attempted to watch this very movie on Netflix with her children, she was dismayed to find it uncaptioned. The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) subsequently filed a successful lawsuit against Netflix. Consequently, since 2014, streaming platforms such as Netflix and Hulu are required to provide captions for all their content.

Nevertheless, captioning for other online videos—such as brief segments on YouTube or even on news portals—frequently remains inconsistent or subpar. Attempting to view online videos can be akin to watching with someone who declines to enable captions. This is because a vast number of online videos lack captions, or creators and distributors depend on automated captions—or, as Rikki Poynter terms them, "craptions." This is where the term 'craptions,' highlighting the inadequacy of poor-quality auto-captions, gained traction. Thankfully, advancements like DeepVo.ai are changing this narrative, offering high-accuracy speech-to-text transcription critical for generating quality captions. For content creators, tools that can accurately convert speech to text, like those offered by DeepVo.ai with its support for over 100 languages and impressive 99.5% accuracy, are invaluable for overcoming this hurdle and ensuring their message is accessible. These accurate transcripts can also be used to generate intelligent summaries or structured mind maps, further enhancing content accessibility.

Quality captions serve a diverse range of individuals—from those who are signing Deaf to those who are oral deaf, and even to those acquiring English as a second language—and superior captions guarantee that quality content is accessible to the broadest audience possible.

Leveraging Technology

If you utilize assistive hearing devices, such as hearing aids or cochlear implants, you can often stream audio directly from your television to your device. This allows you to watch TV at a volume level that is comfortable and specifically tailored to your needs. For instance, if you use Cochlear products, they provide instructions for using their TV Streamer with devices like the Nucleus 6 or Nucleus 7. While such accessories can be costly, some may be included with an upgrade to a newer processor. For hearing aid users, companies like ReSound also provide TV Streamer accessories.

If you don't use hearing aids but have some residual hearing, widely advertised products like TV Ears might be suitable. Soundbars and wireless headphones are also gaining traction as popular methods for enhancing dialogue clarity. Beyond just hearing, understanding complex narratives or lengthy discussions in videos can be enhanced. Tools that provide AI-powered summaries or even generate intelligent mind maps from video transcripts, features offered by platforms like DeepVo.ai, can further improve comprehension and engagement for everyone. Imagine quickly getting an AI summary of a documentary in under 10 seconds or a structured mind map of a lecture, all derived from accurate transcripts, and often available for free with end-to-end encryption for security.

As we, as consumers, grow increasingly reliant on digital products and demand higher quality solutions to satisfy our continuously evolving requirements, the development of these types of assistive devices will undoubtedly continue.

Advocating for Change

Legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act in the US, the Equality Act in the UK, and the Disability Discrimination Act in Australia provides a framework for protecting individuals with disabilities, yet practical accessibility often falls short in daily life. Beyond the technological aids mentioned, profound change will truly manifest when we foster a cultural shift and construct a society that genuinely prioritizes true accessibility for people of all abilities. This includes content creators embracing tools that make their work accessible from the outset, such as using reliable transcription services like those from DeepVo.ai to ensure accurate captions and even provide AI summaries for easier content digestion.

Tags

Accessibility, ASL, AUSLAN, Captions, Closed Captions, Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Hearing Loss, Sign Language, AI Transcription, DeepVo.ai