Television Captioning Censorship Hurts Family Values [National Association of the Deaf Alert]

NAD Website ^ | 2 Oct 2003 | National Association of the Deaf

[COBOL2Java]

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) urged President Bush to overturn a recent decision by the U.S. Department of Education to declare almost 200 television shows inappropriate for captioning by the Department’s Technology and Media Services for Individuals with Disabilities program, effective October 1, 2003. According to NAD President, Andrew J. Lange, the Department's action is government censorship and contradicts President Bush’s promotion of family values and parental accountability.

Under the current guidelines, applicants for captioning grants take into account the preferences of consumers, through grantee Consumer Advisory Boards (CABs) and other feedback mechanisms, when selecting “educational, news, or informational” programs for captioning. The recent decision deeming almost 200 television shows inappropriate for captioning apparently was based entirely on additional descriptive categories and actions of an external panel of five unnamed individuals.

Required federal rulemaking processes were completely disregarded, thus the public was not provided with the opportunity to provide written opinions, data, or arguments on the recently narrowed definition of “educational, news, or informational” programs for captioning.

Nancy J. Bloch, NAD Executive Director, said, "This secretive process amounts to censorship, which runs counter to the principles of the First Amendment freedom of speech. This action also segregates over 28 million deaf and hard of hearing individuals from access to the same shows as everyone else in America." In addition, Bloch added, families of persons with a hearing loss (parents, siblings, and grandparents in particular) bring the number of persons adversely impacted to many millions more.

Most if not all of the censored shows are in fact educational and informative. These include reruns of family favorites such as “Bewitched” and modern shows such as “Law & Order.” “Disney Monthly Original Children’s Movies” and “Pokemon” cartoons, fixtures in today’s youth culture, are also being censored. Virtually all sports programming has been censored, isolating deaf and hard of hearing students of all ages, not only in the classroom, but within the family, at the school lunch table, and on the playground. The censorship of these shows not only prevents deaf and hard of hearing children from watching shows that help them learn about the trends, culture, and society around them, censorship also prevents deaf and hard of hearing parents from making informed decisions on appropriate programming for their children.

"Without captioning, millions of deaf and hard of hearing parents, such as myself, are unable to preview shows for appropriate content for their children, to watch television programming with their families, or to engage in dialogue with their children in response to televised programs. Education does not stop at the schoolhouse door. My duties and responsibilities as a parent to pass on our family values to my children have been undermined by a few government officials," said Lange who called upon the President to practice what he preaches and restore parental authority by overturning the recent censorship decision.

Similar efforts to censor captioning in 1998 were met by a massive, nationwide outcry of consumer protest. These censorship efforts failed, in part, because then-Department of Education Secretary Richard W. Riley affirmed that the government should not "supersede the individual judgment of millions of deaf Americans” nor should the Department single out particular television programs resulting in a denial of access for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. See Riley’s letter at: http://www.nad.org/infocenter/newsroom/nadnews/EdSecretaryRileyRespon.html

"We’ve always enjoyed a close relationship with the Department in promoting education and family values. This rehashing of the 1998 issue is very disappointing," Bloch said. Consumers are encouraged to share their views and opinions with Congressional members and Department of Education officials; contact information is available at: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

For a list of recently approved and disapproved television programs for U.S. Department of Education captioning support, click on: http://www.nad.org/openhouse/action/alerts/captioningcensorship/list.html

[COBOL2Java]

I'm an interpreter for the deaf, and I know that closed-captioning is a hot issue in the deaf community.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

What? What?

[mommybain]

Don't flame me because I'm stupid....the link above is to a list of programs approved / disapproved for Federal money from the U.S. Department of Education for closed-captioning. Why is it the Department of Education's responsibility to caption "Law and Order"??

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Most if not all of the censored shows are in fact educational and informative. These include reruns of family favorites such as “Bewitched” and modern shows such as “Law & Order.” “Disney Monthly Original Children’s Movies” and “Pokemon” cartoons, fixtures in today’s youth culture, are also being censored. Virtually all sports programming has been censored, isolating deaf and hard of hearing students of all ages, not only in the classroom, but within the family, at the school lunch table, and on the playground. The censorship of these shows not only prevents deaf and hard of hearing children from watching shows that help them learn about the trends, culture, and society around them, censorship also prevents deaf and hard of hearing parents from making informed decisions on appropriate programming for their children.

Wow... Bewitched and Law and Order are educational shows? If that is true are Mad Comics and Playboy considered literature?!

[Principled]

You owe me a keyboard, a desk, a chair, a monitor, a printer, etc!

ROTFLMAO

[theFIRMbss]

>Most if not all of the censored shows are in fact educational and informative. These include reruns of family favorites such as “Bewitched”...

These two sentences
make the people sound like fools.
But, though I'm not deaf,

I usually
keep captioning on. It gets
addictive, to read

along with the words.
(Although captioning often
makes stupid errors.)

Instead of begging
for "grants," (and whining about
government control)

studios should pay
the cost as publicity --
They could say they "care"...

[COBOL2Java]

Why is it the Department of Education's responsibility to caption "Law and Order"??

Well, actually it's not the Dept. of Ed. that does the captioning. Most of the closed-captioning is done by the National Captioning Institute.

Oversight of what has to be captioned is managed by Dept. of Ed., thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

I think the anger in the article is due to the fact that an unnamed, secret board makes the decisions about what doesn't have to be captioned. Sure, Hillary Clinton has no problems with secret boards, but in the rest of the world, that stinks...

[mvpel]

And if 28 million deaf and hard-of-hearing people each gave ten dollars a year to a private organization tasked with doing the captioning work instead of asking for handouts of stolen money from the Feds, they could have captions on every show on every channel, including the porno channels.

[COBOL2Java]

(Although captioning often makes stupid errors.)

Very true! Imagine how you'd feel if captioning was the only way you could understand what was going on. My wife is deaf (and a Republican, BTW) and often gets frustrated by it.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

How to you caption a pornographic movie??? :)

[COBOL2Java]

Unfortunately, most deaf people are stuck in menial, low-paying jobs and live from paycheck-to-paycheck. Don't get me wrong, I'm a moderate libertarian, but sometimes the issue isn't so black-and-white.

[Ronly Bonly Jones]

Well, I'm sure that it wouldn't be particularly difficult to do. OTOH, the captioners would spend all their time on this relatively easy task, to keep their overall productivity numbers high.... yeah... that's the ticket....

[aimhigh]

Well, actually it's not the Dept. of Ed. that does the captioning. Most of the closed-captioning is done by the National Captioning Institute.

But who's paying the National Captioning Institute to caption these shows? The Taxpayer? I'm hearing impaired and love captions. However, I don't like my tax dollars paying for sewage.

[COBOL2Java]

I don't like my tax dollars paying for sewage.

I agree, however, this Clintonesque secret panel which decides on the appropriateness of programs is what sticks in my craw and is at the bottom of the NAD's complaint. Where's the accountability? Maybe they'll decide Al Gore's speeches are appropriate for captioning, but not President Bush's (you don't want hearing impaired people to be getting conservative ideas, ya know)...

[theFIRMbss]

>Imagine how you'd feel if captioning was the only way you could understand what was going on.

Sometimes they're funny!
One nature show often had
"pocket gopher" changed

to "pocket golfer."
I'm sure it's best if your spouse
is handy to help!

[COBOL2Java]

I'm sure it's best if your spouse is handy to help!

My wife is great watching football games. She's usually able to read the coaches' lips! One time back when Joe Gibbs was still with the Redskins (ah those were the days), she caught him uttering a very nasty expletive...