Here at ‘Iwearhearingaids.org', I have a couple of overarching themes which I consider to be ‘The Realities of life with hearing aids.' Those realities are 1) You need to wear your hearing aids, 2) Your physical location will help you hear better, 3) Water is not your friend and 4) It is not enough to just wear your hearing aids. I have chosen these four realities because most situations experienced by hearing aid users fall generally into one or two of these categories.
Closed Captioning (CC) falls into the fourth category because despite wearing your hearing aids, the way movies and television are produced makes it incredibly difficult to hear voices which ultimately make it very difficult to hear the dialogue watching TV/Movies. However, it is entirely possible to watch a TV/Movie without your hearing aids using CC!
TV
When I was a kid, CC did not exist (or it wasn’t widespread at all). Now, it's everywhere, and that's a good thing! I don’t remember this, but it turns out that as a kid I would ignore cartoons and watch the commercials because I couldn't hear the voices or read the lips of the cartoons, and commercials are louder than the regular programming. The first tv shows that I remember watching that had CC were ‘Full House', ‘Rugrats', ‘Wishbone' and ‘Arthur'.
Once most television shows and home movies started regularly using CC, my consumption of on-screen media really took off. But there were a few times when I would go to a friend's house and we'd be watching something with CC, and they'd complain about not being able to watch the show because they were busy reading the subtitles. And perhaps you feel the same way. To that, I respond that the benefits to you are obvious. Your friends and family should be encouraged to use CC when they watch tv or movies with you. They will eventually be able to watch movies and shows with no headaches or annoyance due to the reading/watching duality. So will you.
Movies
Movie theaters have gotten somewhat better about making showtimes available with CC for the Hard of Hearing and Deaf community. Unfortunately, they're not frequent enough or especially convenient.
I recently went to see ‘Dr. Strange' in the movie theater. I went to a show which was not CC knowing full well that I'd miss a lot of the dialogue. But I did my best and really thought that I'd caught most of the plot and activity. However, when I rented it at home and watched it with CC, I realized that I missed TONS of dialogue and plot activity because I didn't or couldn't hear voices. I often opt out of going to a movie at a theater unless it's a show I really want to experience on the big screen. Usually, in that case, I go prepared to miss a lot, and I'm prepared to rent the show when it becomes available, so I can watch it with CC.
Sports and News on TV
There's a significant delay between what's said during sporting events and newscasts on tv and what comes across the screen via CC. There's a couple of ways to handle this. First, turn CC off, turn up the volume and do your best. This is especially handy during sports because CC ticker gets in the way of the plays that are developing on the screen. Second, turn off the volume and read the CC. Have you ever been to the gym with a TV showing CC and you couldn't hear the volume? It's surprisingly easy! Finally, you can do both the hearing and reading thing. Do it enough and you'll get pretty good at it.
Online/YouTube, Etc.
Until recently, the online video websites didn't have a CC option, and it's still hit or miss on whether they offer it. However, this service is gaining in popularity and accuracy. I believe that most online CC services use tech-based voice translating services, so the accuracy of the translation is mediocre. I'm sure it'll get better as time passes, but in the meantime, I recommend using it as much as possible, so that the content providers get as much demand for that service as possible. The more they see there's demand, the more they'll invest in the technology. Perhaps, you could persuade your family and friends to also utilize these services to increase demand.
Conclusion
Closed Captioning is one of the great technological advancements for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people in the past 25 years. It's allowed us to consume digital media content that was otherwise only accessible to people with hearing. I have a personal policy not to watch videos on TV or online that don't provide CC services. As I mentioned above, I also only go to select movies in the theater for the same reason.
Until next time, please keep in mind that if you need hearing aids and don't wear them, you should! If you know someone who needs them and doesn't, do them a favor and talk to them. If you need to, send them to this site. It's ok to wear hearing aids, there are lots of us who do!
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