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Television Access

NAD Position Statement

Introduction

The role of television in American society is firmly established. From provision of simple entertainment to education to broadcasting emergency information, its functions of television deem it to be a staple in the typical American household.

The invention of the closed-captioning decoder and the passage of the 1990 Television Decoder Circuitry Act serve well to illustrate the growing trend toward equal access to television for deaf and hard of hearing viewers, which is already taken for granted and enjoyed by the rest of society.

Position

It is the position of the National Association of the Deaf that the following are central elements of the definition of the úright to equal access:

1. All television programming is to be closed-captioned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of program content or other conditions;
   
2. Live programming, such as talk shows or news broadcasts, is to be captioned by means of real-time captioning technology, which allows the caption viewer to receive the message unedited and unadulterated;
   
3. Text messages for emergency broadcasts, including weather bulletins, are to be provided in a manner that does not hinder the efficiency or function of captions.

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NAD Advocacy:
• TV Captioning Main Page
• Position Statement on TV Captioning
• Digital Captioning Standards
• FCC Petitions

TV Captioning News:
• Captions on TV Not Decreasing
• The National Association of the Deaf Reacts to the FCC Report and Order on Captioning
• And the Captioning Struggle Continues...
• Current Levels of Funding for Captioning Urged by NAD
• Education Secretary Riley Responds to Senators on Springer Caption Funding
• NAD Achieves Important Captioning Victory

TV Guide Advocacy
• TV Guide magazine response to NAD letter
• NAD Advocacy Successfully Reinstates TV Guide Caption Icons
• Complaint sent to "TV Guide" magazine

Captioning Censorship
• Television Captioning Censorship Hurts Family Values
• Approved and Disapproved Television Programs
• NAD Applauds NCD Opposition To Captioning Censorship

Digital Captioning Standards
• NAD and CAN Comments on Digital TV Standards

FCC Captioning Petition
• NAD Urges Comments on Closed Captioning Rules

Legal Rights:
• Broadcast and Cable
• Video, Film, Other Media
• Public Schools
• Political Advertising

Take Action:
• Support the TV Captioning Petition
• Spread the Word about the TV Captioning Petition Action Alert
• File a captioning complaint