In March 2014, Gary Robson participated in TEDxBozeman with a talk posing the question: Does closed captioning still serve the deaf and hard-of-hearing audience for whom it was created? Robson is an expert on captioning and a writer; his published titles include Alternative Realtime Careers and The Closed Captioning Handbook. His wife, Kathy Robson, RPR, CRR, CBC, is an NCRA member. Robson explained how the technology was developed, the laws broadening accessibility, and the contrast between high accessibility and low quality. The FCC had established best practices for captioning quality shortly before the TEDx event, so Robson’s talk focused on the four elements in the FCC’s ruling: accuracy, synchronization, completeness, and placement.
An article by Robson about his talk and the latest on information about captioning legislation is featured in the June issue of the JCR. The video is also posted to the TEDx website.
