[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 26, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E106]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  RECOGNIZING THE NATIONAL CAPTIONING INSTITUTE'S QUARTER-CENTURY OF 
 ACHIEVEMENT IN CLOSED CAPTIONING AND RELATED MEDIA ACCESS TECHNOLOGIES

                          HON. EARL BLUMENAUER

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 26, 2005

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, as the cochair of the Congressional 
Public Broadcasting Caucus, I am introducing a bipartisan resolution to 
recognize the achievements of the National Captioning Institute, NCI, 
in providing closed-captioning services and other media access 
technologies to Americans who are disabled by hearing loss and/or 
vision loss, or who are limited by their inability to read or master 
English as a second language. Given that communication delivery systems 
such as television and, more recently, the Internet, play an absolutely 
essential role in American society, this resolution salutes NCI's 
quarter-century of progressive development in bringing media-access 
technologies to the American people.
  The National Captioning Institute was founded in 1979 as a nonprofit 
corporation with the mission of ensuring that deaf and hard-of-hearing 
people have access to television through the technology of closed 
captioning. Prior to this time, captioned television was offered on an 
extremely limited basis, and the captions were ``open,'' resembling 
subtitles, an obtrusive system roundly rejected by broadcasters and 
audiences alike. NCI pioneered the closed-caption technology in which 
captions could be accessed through special decoder units. This 
revolutionary solution made it possible for both hearing and hearing-
impaired audiences to enjoy television programming at the same time, 
and made the goal of accessible television a reality. NCI pioneered the 
way for the first, nationally broadcast closed captioned television 
programs 25 years ago--an event so momentous that it was announced from 
the Rose Garden of the White House and made international headlines.
  It is estimated that more than 100 million Americans benefit from 
captioned programming. These audiences include 28 million people who 
are deaf or hard-of-hearing; children and adults learning to read; and 
those learning English as a second language. Hearing and nonhearing 
audiences are most likely to use closed captioning in their homes, 
although the system is embedded throughout today's society in public 
spaces such as bars, gyms and airports. As part of NCI's commitment to 
providing media access to everyone, NCI is making great advances in the 
development and application of described video technology, a service 
that provides an audio description of the visual elements of video 
programming for people who are blind or have low vision, which is an 
audience of more than 14 million people.
  The span of NCI's perseverance and dedication extends far beyond 
technology for our televisions. NCI established the Nation's only free 
consumer help desk for communications access issues where citizens may 
pose questions on topics such as the availability of captioned 
programming, how to resolve problems with displaying captions, 
accessibility of closed captions with digital cable and high definition 
television, and the availability of closed captions in Spanish and on 
DVDs and home videos.
  In addition to its technologic achievements, NCI recently took the 
lead on auditing how the entire captioning industry is performing. It 
commissioned the field's first study to evaluate the quality, 
availability, and use of the Nation's use of captioning services in 
order to improve performance throughout the entire captioning industry.
  In light of all of the above achievements, I look forward to working 
with my colleagues to pass this resolution and demonstrate our support 
for the National Captioning Institute's dedication to improving media 
access to millions of our fellow Americans.

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