Guest Author - Kelli Deister

During the early 1970’s, people were trying to create a specialized system of transmitting information via the television. The first attempt failed; however, it also led to a successful attempt not too long after that. Equipment was invented for use with those that had a hearing loss. It wasn’t available to everyone early on, but only to those that were either deaf or hard of hearing.

In 1979, the National Captioning Institute was organized. Not long after that, the first closed captioning device was released and accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing. Since then, there has been significant progress in this area. Previously, only a handful of videos had the captioning, yet in modern times, videos, DVD’s, and theatres all have the capability to use captioning.

Before the captioning device was created, the deaf could only watch a program and try to guess what was being said. This can create problems because a person that is deaf might watch someone being slapped and laugh at it unintentionally. It may appear to them as though it is, for example, slapstick comedy. Whereas, in another program, a person might be playing a prank on another person and crying. For those that are hearing, they are able to go alone with the facial expressions, body language, and words spoken, in order to clearly understand the plot of the show. Meanwhile, those that are deaf or hard of hearing must rely solely on facial expressions and body language. The end result would be that for one show, hearing people may be crying while deaf people may be laughing and vice versa.

Imagine trying to watch an English based movie and the captioning is done in French. If you don’t know French and can’t speak it, you will not understand the plot of the movie. It is the same for those that are deaf. They have been expected to watch a movie and understand it, even when there is no accommodation to interpret the spoken word into ASL.

Another issue is that, in my opinion, it is discriminatory to offer movies, videos, and DVD’s to the hearing population only. We live in a day and age in which technology is progressing at a rapid speed. There are no more excuses. Our government must work more diligently at providing captioning in all areas, for those that are deaf or hard of hearing. Lawmakers on the state level must also work hard at providing captioning to the deaf and hard of hearing.

It is time for equal access to everyone, regardless of whether or not they can hear. Everyone is deserving of the right to obtain information on current events and breaking news, as well as to watch a movie of their choice. To refuse the deaf and hard of hearing the use of captioning for a movie or show, is to discriminate and place one populations needs and abilities over another. It’s time for the deaf and hard of hearing to have equal access to vital information in their communities, as well as the right to choose a movie to watch. To do otherwise, would be to take away the deaf populations freedom of choice.