Television Captioning

The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 provides for the captioning of free-to-air television programs. In addition under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, disability discrimination is unlawful and the Act aims to promote equal opportunity and access for people with disabilities. For more information about the regulatory framework follow the link to Television Captioning Background.

The Department is undertaking an investigation into access to electronic media for the hearing and vision impaired. To download a copy of the discussion paper and for information on how to make a submission, follow the link to Media Access Discussion Paper.

Captioning is the presentation of the audio component of audio-visual content as text on screen. It is generally intended to assist viewers with a hearing impairment.

Captions include descriptions of sounds, laughter and music and are usually situated on screen to minimise interference with the picture. Captions are timed to appear with speech and are usually coloured and positioned to indicate who is speaking. Where speaker identification is not relevant, captions are usually in the form of white writing on a black backdrop.

Two types of captioning are generally used: closed and open. In relation to television captioning, closed captions are encoded into the television signal as teletext data, which can be decoded and viewed with a teletext decoder or teletext capable television. Open captions are overlayed or ‘burnt’ onto the original print recording of a program and do not require a teletext decoder.

• Document ID: 83300 |
• Last modified: 30 April 2008, 1:10pm