About Captioning

Television closed captioning was first introduced in the United States in the early 1980's. It was initiated primarily by the federal government in response to the public need to make news and other important television programming accessible to the deaf and hard-of-hearing. The technology takes the spoken word, along with sound effects, and displays them as text.

The process originates with a trained captioner, who works remotely from their home. Using a phone line, the captioner dials in to access the audio of the “live” event. The captioner “writes” the audio as close to verbatim as possible using a steno machine or a speech recognition engine (in the case of a voice writer). The steno captioner uses the same steno keyboard that a court reporter uses. This allows the captioner to write in shorthand, up to 250+ words per minute. The typical spoken word is between 180 and 200 wpm with gusts up to 225 wpm.

The steno machine is connected to the captioner’s computer and the steno shorthand is translated into English with the help of Computer-Aided Transcription (CAT) software. The captions are then transmitted through the internet (or modem) and are displayed on your television, your computer, a large monitor, or even your hand-held mobile device.

Today, closed captioning is not just for TV and its benefits reach farther than the Deaf and HOH community. Captioning is used by English language learners, consumers in noisy environments (restaurants and health clubs), and professionals. Look around, captions are available on TV programming, emergency broadcasts, sports, financial earnings calls, meetings, concerts, events, and in the classroom. As captioning has grown, so have we and whatever your need is, we can meet it.