Closed Captioning Takes
Firmer Ground

  • Early 1980s – network captioning commitments wavering due to slow growth of decoder purchases

  • 1982 – Real time captioning invented

  • 1988 – Toward Equality – Commission on Education of the Deaf recommendations (<200,000 decoders sold)

      • Limited programming choices: Few cable or daytime programs captioned

      • Decoders expensive, stigmatizing, complicated

  • 1990 – Television Decoder Circuitry Act – requires captioning decoder chip in all TVs with screens greater than 13 inches after 1993