A program has open captioning if the text always appears on the broadcast, without any way to turn it off. For example, silent movies can be considered to have open captions, as the intertitles contain text that help to tell the film's story.

Open Captioning

A program has closed captioning if the text does not normally appear on the broadcast. The viewer will have to manually activate the captions in order for them to appear. For example, most Hollywood movies on DVD, Blu-Ray, or streaming services have closed captioning.

Closed Captioning

A program has automated captioning, or Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), if the text is generated by a speech recognition or translation program instead of a person. This is often used on social media websites, such as YouTube and Facebook, due to the vast amount of visual content on these websites. 

Automated Captioning

- Closed Captioning
- Open Captioning
- Automated Captioning

Grinnell College

Captioning is the process of displaying text while a video is being played. Typically, the text will be a transcription of the video's audio, noting who is speaking along with sound effects and important musical cues. This helps to make films, television shows, and other video recordings accessible to those who are hard of hearing or deaf.

Captioning

Ellcessor, E. (2011). Captions On, Off, on TV, Online: Accessibility and Search Engine Optimization in Online Closed Captioning. Television & New Media, 13(4), 329–352. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476411425251

Captions On, Off, on TV, Online: Accessibility and Search Engine Optimization in Online Closed Captioning

Types of Captioning

By captioning a film that was not originally captioned, it can be viewed as a fundamental change in how people view the film. It adds an experience of reading to the film, which could distract from the visuals and is unpopular with some audiences. Captions are often marketed as a language learning tool instead of an accessibility tool, which is likely because of this perception.

Perception of Captioning

Due to the increasing prevalence of the internet in people's lives, and the popularity of visual media on the web, captioning has become is a significant issue for many companies. This focus may be because textualization may make content more easily available on search engines. As a result, other types of accessibility, such as audio description, receive significantly less attention.

Emphasis on Captioning

Since most captions provided on television are closed, this means that people who do not want to see them can simply not activate them. As a result, closed captions act as a private and individual solution. This may be why closed captions are more common than open captions on television.

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