Closed Captioning - A Godsend For the Muted Television

Have you ever had the privilege (or misfortune) of being stuck in a waiting room for what seems like forever and the only thing distracting you from waiting is the television bolted to the ceiling? I always find that it adds insult to injury when the volume of the television is turned so low only dogs can hear it, or the television is muted entirely. Such an environment is one in which the use of closed captioning on the television helps alleviate the pain of waiting.

Going to the doctor isn’t generally a fun activity. But at least when the television in the waiting room has closed captioning, I can catch up on the news, or my soap, or whatever is being won on The Price is Right. It’s certainly understandable that not all patients waiting to be seen would want a television blaring a program they have no interest in, so closed captioning allows those who are interested the opportunity to follow the program. I find that closed captioning makes the seemingly endless wait for the doctor just that much easier.

Another place where closed captioning has been tremendously useful is at restaurants that have televisions. Sometimes a person just can’t help but go out to eat during the big game, but fortunately the chosen restaurant will be showing that game. This is of little use without closed captioning, however. Generally a restaurant manager will find it easier to turn on the closed captioning rather than raise the volume to a level where the fan can hear it across the room. Sure, a fan can watch the game itself without closed captioning, but there’s nothing worse than knowing a favorite player is being interviewed and not being able to hear what is being said, or there being a delay in the game and not knowing why. At least with closed captioning, the interview can be read and understood and the cause of the delay known.

Lastly, closed captioning on the televisions at the gym really makes a workout go by that much faster. I find that watching a show with closed captioning really makes it easier to make it through my session. Sure, I normally wouldn’t watch that much CNN, but the closed captioning at least means I’m learning something about the world while burning some calories. Also, reading closed captioning while on a treadmill is much more entertaining than reading those headlines that stay up for full minutes at a time. Reading the dialogue and conversations through closed captioning is also much more interesting than the crawl inching its way across the screen. Also, sometimes the gym shows cartoons, and there’s no way I’d be able to figure out what those characters are up to without closed captioning. Setting myself up to work out in easy view of a television with the closed captioning turned on definitely makes working out a lot easier.

There are numerous situations where we’re faced with a television with low or muted volume. This could be an agonizing tease, but the use of closed captioning allows us to follow what’s happening on the screen, and even learn a little bit at the same time. Whether it’s in a waiting room, out at a restaurant, or at the gym, using closed captioning on the nearby televisions means we can enjoy our programs or at least understand the news without distracting other people.

One company that does a great job with closed captioning is Video Caption Corporation in New York.