The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) applauds the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and especially Chairman Wheeler for moving to upgrade the quality of closed captioning on television. The NAD and other deaf and hard of hearing organizations filed a petition in 2004 asking the FCC to create quality standards for closed captioning. Our community has long been frustrated with poor quality captioning on television. We need accurate, synchronous, complete, and properly placed captions so that we can fully understand programs. The Commission’s new rules will improve the quality of closed captioning on television.
On February 20th, NAD President Chris Wagner, CEO Howard Rosenblum, and Policy Counsel Andrew Phillips attended the FCC’s Open Commission meeting where they announced these new rules. We were thrilled to see many deaf and hard of hearing people and supporters at this meeting. The NAD is especially pleased that these rules got the full support of all five FCC commissioners! Each Commissioner gave strong speeches supporting the need for closed captioning quality standards.
The FCC’s new rules is a giant leap in the right direction, but we have much work to do to improve the quality of closed captioning on television as well as on the Internet.
See the Order and FNPRM.
See also:
FCC Press Release
Chairman Wheeler Statement
Commissioner Clyburn Statement
Commissioner Rosenworcel Statement
Commissioner Pai Statement
Commissioner O’Rielly Statement
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The NAD is the nation’s premier civil rights organization of, by and for deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the United States of America. The advocacy scope of the NAD is broad, covering a lifetime and impacting future generations in the areas of early intervention, education, employment, health care, technology, telecommunications, youth leadership, and more – improving the lives of millions of deaf and hard of hearing Americans. The NAD also carries out its federal advocacy work through coalition efforts with specialized national deaf and hard of hearing organizations, as well as coalitions representing national cross-disability organizations.