Caption Decoders: Expanding Options for Hearing Impaired Children and Adults

Thanks to the introduction of closed captioned television in March 1980, people who have hearing impairments can watch many television programs at the same time and with the same understanding as the general population. Through use of a relatively inexpensive caption decoder, hearing impaired persons can read on their video screens the same verbal information that most of the population is hearing at that time, so that now—just as it has long been for normally hearing individuals—television has become accessible as a primary source of news and entertainment for those who are deaf. The availability of caption decoders has also opened up other important options to hearing impaired viewers, such as text services, cable TV programs, home video movies and real-time captioned news programs.