Who doesn’t enjoy catching up on a favorite TV show, watching a movie, or searching YouTube for news commentary, actor interviews, and blooper reels? We normally don’t think twice about switching from the TV to the computer, but for those who struggle to hear, some forms of online entertainment can be difficult to access.
Have you ever noticed that little CC button on your remote control? For people with hearing loss, the closed captioning that’s available for TV programing makes all the difference between understanding the action or getting left in the dark.
Closed captioning services have been mandatory for all TV programming for several years, and it provides the text of what’s being said, displayed in real time at the bottom of the screen. Whether it’s the news, TV shows, or movies, CC services allow people with hearing loss to get the same information as those with normal hearing.
Closed Captioning in the Past
Not long ago, CC services were available on just a few programs, and to access it required additional technology. If you wanted captioning on your programs, you had to buy a stand-alone box, manually attached it to the TV, and hope CC services were available for the program you wanted to watch. Since then, CC technology has become much more accessible, with every TV having receiving and broadcasting technology that can accommodate CC services.
YouTube and Close Captioning
YouTube is joining the movement, making content more accessible for everyone. Ever notice the CC button on the YouTube videos you play? This setting is a life saver for millions of people around the world who suffer from hearing loss. It gives everyone the opportunity to access and understand the news, informational programs, and entertainment. YouTube recently announced that there are over one billion videos that have been captioned! While many have been manually captioned, the majority were captioned using an automated captioning system.
YouTube started captioning content over 10 years ago, and since then have continued to build on their database of captioned videos. Around seven years ago, they released software that forever changed the captioning game; technology that automatically captioned videos using the YouTube caption system and Google’s speech recognition technology. This meant far more content could be captioned, targeting videos whose creators didn’t manually add their own captioning. Though this technology isn’t always accurate and can make some pretty hilarious or annoying mistakes like missing words, miss-spelling content, or even skipping entire sentences, it does allow easy access to online content on video sharing sites across the web for those who struggle to hear.
How Often Is Captioning Technology Used?
YouTube reports that videos are viewed with captioning 15 million times every day! As captioning technology continues to improve, this number grows. YouTube continues to build on their captioning, improving speech recognition algorithms and growing their database. The technology is also becoming more accurate, and it won’t be long before the automatic system will be nearly as accurate as human transcription for online programing. Most of the focus has been on providing English CC, but YouTube is also improving captioning technology in other languages, including German, French, Spanish, and Japanese.
Hearing Aid Technology and Video Content
Do you suffer from hearing loss? If you’re frustrated that the programs you want to watch don’t have accurate closed captions, it’s time to consider other options. While turning up the volume might seem like a good short-term solution to hearing loss, you’ll still be straining to hear, miss key plot lines, and annoy your family who can hear every word from across the house.
Many of our top hearing aid brands feature the ultimate in connectivity that a bring programing right to your ears. Today’s sophisticated hearing aids function as wireless headphones, connecting effortlessly to your TV, computer, or phone. Rather than struggling to hear, or straining your eyes to read the small captions flashing across the screen, you could be hearing content clearly, streamed right to your ears.
If you’re ready to do the right thing for your hearing, make communication a breeze, and enjoy TV and YouTube videos like everyone else, with or without captioning, visit us at one of our My Hearing Centers locations to look at our sleek hearing aids that will connect you with what you want to hear.