By Sharon Earley, National Captioning Institute, Inc.
Closed captioning has enabled the hearing impaired to enjoy television more fully over the past three years. Although over-the- air broadcasters have provided the bulk of closed-captioned programs, the participation of the cable industry is both growing and promising. The Line 21 system, with its proven transmission and reception strengths, is an ideally suited caption delivery system for cablecasters. The Line 21 signal passes intact over satellite and cable. It can be recorded in three-quarter and half-inch formats, and no special accommodations are required to retransmit it. Decoding devices, specifically designed for cable, are currently available, as is a system which enables a local operator to caption its own programming in a cost-effective manner. The National Captioning Institute sees the full participation of cablecasters in the provision of closed captions as an important step in increasing the access of the hearing impaired to television programming.