FCC screws deaf people

The FCC has changed the rules on Closed Captioning, creating a large number of exemptions that will make it easier for shows to be aired without accessible text. Natalija sez, "As someone who grew up without being able to understand movies or television, and wasn't able to afford a closed captioning machine until near adulthood, this is a severe blow to those with hearing disabilities. People don't realize how much more deaf people are willing to buy something when they can see it advertized in words, or how much more willing they are to watch something when it is captioned instead of having to rely on another person to explain things."

On Wed. Sept 13, 2006, the FCC issued one of the worst decisions it has ever issued on closed captioning. The Order is on the web site shown below. Basically the order grants two requests for exemptions from the requirement to closed caption, a requirement in place since 1996 and that has ensured more and more closed captioning on television.

In taking this action, the FCC states that it is "inclined favorably" to grant new exemption requests to organizations that do "not receive compensation from video programming distributors from the airing of [their] programs," and who also say they "may terminate or substantially curtail [their] programming" or "[curtail] other activities important to [their] mission" if forced to caption.

The gist of what the FCC has done is to open the door to many more exemptions. It appears also the FCC's action creates a rule change that defines a new category of exemption from the captioning rules, cutting the legs out from the current "undue burden" proof currently needed to get an exemption for captioning requirement.

Link (Thanks, Natalija!)

Update: François sez, "The adverse impact goes much beyond the hearing impaired: close captioning attaches a synchronized stream of text to a video stream, which opens up useful ways to index, search and retrieve video for anyone, deaf or not."