Captions are often seen as only a benefit for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. This simply isn’t the case. Captions are beneficial to a wide variety of people and situations. For example, a person might have difficulty with hearing the audio track because of a noisy environment, not because of a hearing impairment. Additional benefits:
- Captions can be read by people who benefit from seeing and hearing words together; this could be English language learners, people with certain learning disabilities, or visual learners.
- In some situations, users may not be able to access audio on their computers, such as lab stations without speakers. Captions solve that.
- Captions are searchable, allowing viewers to search media files for a topic of interest. Companies like CNET have discovered that captioning their videos increased their search engine optimization dramatically.
- When videos have poor sound quality, captions improve communication.1
- Captions clarify when the language is heavily accented. 1
- When one is unfamiliar with the terminology of a subject, captions make the words clear. 1
- Captions can be translated into other languages during playback. Purdue’s research activities could reach a larger audience with potentially greater impact for the international community.
1. Dietrich, G. & Johnson, J. (2007) DVD Captioning with Adobe Encore at AHEAD 2007 [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://www.htctu.fhda.edu/PUBLICATIONS/CONFERENCES/AHEAD/ENCORE07/WEB_DATA/file53.htm