

The primary distinction between subtitles and closed captioning is their purpose rather than their format. In fact, the Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990 requires that all televisions manufactured in the United States since 1993 include a built-in caption decoder if their picture tubes are larger than 13 inches.Ĭlosed captions and subtitles are oftentimes used interchangeably, but, in fact, they have different meanings. The use of closed captioning has grown over recent years as more public attention has been brought upon it by advocates such as actors Marlee Matlin and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who both happen to be hard of hearing). Captions, for example, can be read when audio is unavailable or when the viewers find themselves in noisy environments. Closed captioning was created as a tool of video accessibility, to help the deaf and hard-of-hearing, but it can be used in a variety of scenarios. Let’s dig deeper into closed captioning!Ĭlosed captions are a text-based representation of the spoken part of a video. If you want to find out more about the benefits of adding closed captioning to video materials, and you are looking for a quick way to turn spoken words into text, this material is for you. Not only do closed captions help people who are hard of hearing consume your content, but they also increase your audience reach and provide more data for your marketing team.ĭid you know that 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound? That's why it's important that you caption your videos if you want people to follow along.

If you've ever watched a video on YouTube and noticed that it had closed captions, then you know how beneficial they can be.
