Signing Savvy, Your Sign Language Resource

Today, captioning is an easy option to turn on for most movies and television shows. A remote control makes captions appear with a push of a button, and presto, you are able to see the printed text of the dialog on a television show. In fact, televisions in public places, like airports and bars, generally are set to display captioning by default. But for most of television history, access to captioned programming was nonexistent, or limited and required special equipment.

Consider This

Television programming began July 1, 1941, when the game show Truth or Consequences was broadcast. The first captioned program wasn't aired until over thirty years later, on February 15, 1972, with an episode of The Mod Squad. Deaf people had no access to such cultural touchstones as I Love Lucy, Gunsmoke, Leave It to Beaver, The Guiding Light, Captain Kangaroo, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Rocky and Bullwinkle, or Star Trek.

PBS and ABC Take the Lead

PBS ran some programs with open captions, including The French Chef, beginning in 1972. ABC News would re-run its evening news with open captions... five hours later, on PBS.

For years, this was the most up-to-date news for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers.

Closed Captions Arrive in the '80s

However, designers and engineers were working on technology that would broadcast captions that would be decoded and made visible for those with a decoder box. On March 16, 1980, the first closed captioned television programs were broadcast: The ABC Sunday Night Movie Semi-Tough (ABC), The Wonderful World of Disney’s feature of the film Son of Flubber (NBC), and Masterpiece Theatre (PBS). To view the captions, viewers had to order the first generation of the closed caption decoder from Sears for $560, which would be equivalent to $1,600 today! It would be two more years before real-time captioning would be available for live events like news, sports events or specials.

A Personal Reflection

Jamie Berke, a deaf writer who was the "Deafness Guide" for About.com for 15 years, wrote in one of her articles:

Legal Steps Forward in the '90s

In 1990, a law was passed mandating that all televisions 13 inches or larger manufactured for sale in the U.S. contain caption decoders, which meant people did not need to buy expensive decoder boxes any longer. As a result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC established rules and schedules related to closed captioning that went into effect on January 1, 1998, and established an eight-year transition period for new programming, mandating 100% of non-exempt new programs must be captioned.

Today

100% of all new video programming, with exceptions, must be closed captioned on televisions. Finally, deaf and hard of hearing people may now click through 234 channels and not find anything good on television, just like everyone else!

Captions, however, benefit more than just the deaf — second language viewers, elderly with hearing issues, children learning to read, and really anyone watching a movie or show with audio that may be unclear at times (like characters speaking quickly or excitedly or with an accent) or when watching in a loud environment. As an article in Time Magazine aptly described, “Deaf advocates won the battle for closed captioning and changed the way Americans watch TV." Everyone wins with closed captioning.

See It Signed - Example Sentence

See this example sentence about closed captions:

ASL Gloss: OUR #TV #CC (captions) ALWAYS #ON.

English Example: The closed captions on our TV are always on.

Become a Member of Signing Savvy to see more example sentences signed, including example sentences related to Deaf Culture.

More on the History of Closed Captioning

Books

Because of their deafness, deaf people sometimes feel isolated, especially in public where many people do not know sign language. They may in fact enjoy it if you come up and “say hi” and make small talk using sign language.

Before you approach a deaf person(s) think about the environment and situation at the time. Are two or more deaf people signing with each other? Make sure you are not interrupting them. Does the person seem busy or in a hurry? If so, try not to delay them. These are just common courtesies and likely the same types of things you would notice before going up to a hearing person in public.

It’s ok to say, “Hi, my name is” but be prepared to get a full response after that! It’s not over just because you have exhausted your vocabulary. At the same time, don't be intimidated. Most deaf people will understand you are not a native signer and will be patient with you.

This article is part of our “Signs That Are Close... But Not the Same” series, which highlights signs that look similar, but have different meanings.

The ASL signs shown below look similar, but are not the same. There are many ASL signs that when produced look similar, but in fact have a completely different meaning. Below you will find examples of such signs. Watch closely to see if you can see the differences. In addition, watch my eyebrows, look to see when I tilt my head or lean my body in a certain way, even what my mouth is doing. These nuances are called inflections and trust me, inflections matter.

These examples are all signs used when beginning to sign and having conversations.

1. Please vs. Sorry

PLEASE and SORRY both have the dominant hand making a circular motion on the chest. PLEASE uses an open B handshape and SORRY uses an A handshape.

2. Please vs. Enjoy

Both PLEASE and ENJOY have the dominant open flat hand make a circle over the chest; ENJOY also has the non-dominant hand circling over the stomach at the same time. To remember PLEASE, think of when something is pleasing it warms your heart. Think of all the different kinds of food you enjoy to help remember ENJOY also circles over the stomach.

3. Understand vs. Don't Understand

UNDERSTAND and DON’T UNDERSTAND are signed the same, with the exception of the head shaking no and the negative facial expression. This is a great example of how important non-manual signals are to the meaning of signs!

4. Know vs. Don't Know  

While KNOW has the dominant open B handshape tap the side of the forehead (where knowledge is kept), DON’T KNOW has the dominant open B handshape touch the side of the head and then turn the palm out and push that knowledge out of the head.

5. Different Ways to Sign Help

When signing HELP (as in, "to help or assist") the dominant 10 handshape resting on the non-dominant B handshape starts at waist level and is pulled up.

However, HELP is a directional sign. Directional signs are signs that describe both the action and who performed the action. By changing the directionality of the sign, the meaning is changed. So when you are describing who helped whom, you change the direction of the sign.

• When signing HELP (as in, "someone helping me") the sign starts away from the body and moves toward the body. The motion of starting away and moving in toward the body, or toward “me,” represents that someone is helping me (the signer).
• When signing HELP (as in, "you helping someone") the sign starts close to the body and moves out, away from the body. This motion represents me (the signer) helping someone else.

• When signing HELP (as in, "someone helping someone else") the signs starts in one area (usually one side of the body) and moves to another area (usually the other side of the body). This is typically when you are having a conversation and have described one person using one area of signing space and another person in another area of signing space. The sign HELP then moves from the area you set up for the person that helped to the second area you set up for the person who received the help.

6. Friend vs. Good Friend

Both FRIEND and GOOD FRIEND use the connected X handshapes to represent entwined lives of friends. FRIEND has the X handshapes connect together, pull apart and flip, then connect again. GOOD FRIEND has the connected X handshapes move forward together. The pull is strong because they are such GOOD FRIENDS.

7. Learn vs. Student

LEARN and STUDENT look similar because they both include the sign for LEARN. However, STUDENT is a compound sign merging LEARN + the PERSON AGENT. The PERSON AGENT is a sign used in combination with different signs to mean an occupation or a person who does that action.

8. Teach vs. Teacher

Like LEARN and STUDENT, TEACH and TEACHER look similar because they both include the sign for TEACH. However, TEACHER is a compound sign merging TEACH + the PERSON AGENT.

How can I figure out the difference between signs on my own?

If you see two signs that look close, but not the same, and you’re not sure, you may use Signing Savvy features to help you figure out the difference. All of our signs have sign descriptions and memory aids that members may access. Reading the sign description and memory aids for the signs will help you figure out the small differences between them that your eyes don’t catch at first. We also recommend using the pause and slow motion feature to slow down the video, so you may take a closer look. These features are available to Signing Savvy members.