Being a tad bit hard of hearing, I am noticing more and more television commercials are adding closed captioning to their spiels. Just within the last two weeks, it seems the floodgates have opened. In other words, television advertisers are realizing hard of hearing folks spend money, too. Maybe it is a Boomer thing. I don’t know. But advertisers are jumping on board.
Closed captioning has been a godsend for me. Since I began using it about 5 years ago, I am discovering how much I’ve been missing: <crickets chirping>, <dog barking>, <faucet dripping>… you know, nuance stuff most people take for granted.
I am also discovering that I can go back to older movies I had watched long ago without closed captioning turned on, and watch them all over again as if they were new: all those important scenes where a major plot element is whispered during a thunderstorm on a railway platform with a parade and marching band and cymbals and police sirens blaring in the background; last gasped words trickling from a dying person’s lips; lovemaking grunts and groans emanating through the walls from the next hotel room over while a couple of spies chuckle during an important discussion <lovemaking grunts and groans> — all of these previously unheard comments suddenly becoming AUDIBLE through the magic of silent closed captioning.
How cool is THAT? TV advertiser’s may be slow, but they aren’t dumb.
Now, if only movie theaters would take TV’s lead and begin offering special “closed captioning” movie viewings just for groups of hard of hearing folks like me. I’d probably faint watching a large-screen just-released blockbuster movie. Who knows — we hard of hearing folks might even buy a couple of $8 hotdogs and a bag of $10 popcorn or two.
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Hotdogs & Popcorn Closed Captioning
Posted in Anything Goes, Commentary, tagged CC, closed captioning, hard-of-hearing on 06/12/2013| 14 Comments »
Closed captioning has been a godsend for me. Since I began using it about 5 years ago, I am discovering how much I’ve been missing: <crickets chirping>, <dog barking>, <faucet dripping>… you know, nuance stuff most people take for granted.
I am also discovering that I can go back to older movies I had watched long ago without closed captioning turned on, and watch them all over again as if they were new: all those important scenes where a major plot element is whispered during a thunderstorm on a railway platform with a parade and marching band and cymbals and police sirens blaring in the background; last gasped words trickling from a dying person’s lips; lovemaking grunts and groans emanating through the walls from the next hotel room over while a couple of spies chuckle during an important discussion <lovemaking grunts and groans> — all of these previously unheard comments suddenly becoming AUDIBLE through the magic of silent closed captioning.
How cool is THAT? TV advertiser’s may be slow, but they aren’t dumb.
Now, if only movie theaters would take TV’s lead and begin offering special “closed captioning” movie viewings just for groups of hard of hearing folks like me. I’d probably faint watching a large-screen just-released blockbuster movie. Who knows — we hard of hearing folks might even buy a couple of $8 hotdogs and a bag of $10 popcorn or two.
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