By Eric Taub

Closed Captioning Opens Up

Many inventions originally created for the handicapped have found their way into mainstream culture. For example, while closed captioning of television programs has been a boon to the deaf and hard of hearing, the technology has also improved the atmosphere at the nation’s gyms, where customers can now watch TV without disturbing those neighbors deeply engrossed in cell phone conversations.

As useful as the nation’s mandatory captioning system has become, the additional capabilities that are part of the digital transmission standard will open up a new realm of benefits.

A digital broadcast can contain up to 16 caption streams, four times the number available in the current analog system. Now there’s room to offer not just multiple languages but multiple versions of the same language, including edited versions for younger audiences with less-advanced reading skills.

Tired of the same old white font on a black background? Digital captions can be displayed in a wide variety of type faces and sizes, with or without a background, in varying degrees of opacity.

Early digital set top receivers did not include the circuitry necessary to decode the caption stream, but that’s beginning to change, according to Gerry Field, manager of the DTV Access Project, part of WGBH’s Media Access Group. The problem today: few broadcasters are yet availing themselves of the new captioning features.