Not Done Yet

There continue to be caption quality issues particularly when it's a live television event that's not prerecorded. You can see a lot of errors. It's still a very real problem. Caption placement on the screen can also be problematic. Captions can show up in different places. There are times when the captions block you from viewing important information. For example, during an interview, the name of the person being interviewed may be shown but the captions cover up the name, so I won’t know who's talking if I didn’t catch that when they were first introduced.

I've experienced caption delay. If there’s a live conversation happening during a news segment and the captions are delayed, I might be able to identify who's talking. But sometimes the conversation gets very muddled because I’m not sure who's saying what. It can take a lot of mental bandwidth for me to sort that out.

Another annoyance is when captions get cut off when a TV program ends or goes to a commercial break. This happens with live television situations, but it can also happen with recorded programming. If the station goes to a commercial but the captions haven't finished displaying, they will simply be cut off, and I miss the end of whatever was being said. That part might have been the most important, interesting, or entertaining thing said, and it's gone. I've missed it!

Improving TV caption quality would definitely create a more equitable experience.