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Captioned Television and Hearing-Impaired Viewers: The Report of a National Survey
- American Annals of the Deaf
- Gallaudet University Press
- Volume 126, Number 9, December 1981
- pp. 1017-1023
- 10.1353/aad.2012.1072
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
In fall 1980, the WGBH Caption Center conducted a national mail survey to determine media habits and preferences among hearing-impaired people. The survey was undertaken to supplement audience ratings reports for WGBH's Captioned ABC News and to collect preliminary information to guide future captioning efforts.
Responses were received from 1,745 people, 59% of the mail sample. Respondents were primarily deaf, with an early age of onset. They averaged high levels of newspaper reading and captioned television viewing. Roughly 50% reported watching the Captioned ABC News two or more times per week. Level of education was found to be significantly related to news reading and television viewing behavior.
The response rate and the findings suggest that such direct approaches to the hearing-impaired students can provide important and useful data for captioned program producers.
