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According to an Australian Bureau of Statistics survey, there are 1.2 million Australians who acknowledge that they have some degree of hearing loss. For these people, captions provide an opportunity to access or improve their enjoyment of television programs and videos.
Captions represent the soundtrack of a television or video program as written text. Because captions must be read at the same time as watching the program, a number of techniques are used to help the viewer. The captions showing speech are positioned and coloured to show which person is speaking. Other audio information, which would not be obvious to a Deaf or hearing impaired person, such as music, lyrics and sound effects are also added as caption information. To make sure that the captions do not obscure the picture, they generally appear at the bottom of the screen.
Captions are different from foreign language subtitles. Captions are a written representation of the soundtrack, whereas subtitles are an interpretation from one language into the written form of another.
Captions are prepared at a reading rate appropriate for the program's intended audience. So, a children's television program or video program would be captioned at a slower word rate than a program watched by adults.
Television captions are called 'closed captions', which means that they can only be seen using a teletext decoder which is incorporated into some televisions and video cassette recorders (VCRs). At present, only 13 per cent of programs are captioned, however, many of these are popular prime-time programs. Captions that appear on video are 'open' captions. This means that no special equipment is needed to view a captioned video as the captions have been superimposed onto the video itself. They can be placed on any VHS VCR.
Since 1987 the Australian Caption Centre has administered the Subtitled Videos Project. Funded through the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services, this grant provides for up to 50 hours of captioned video material each year. Most of these titles are entertainment videos. Currently, these videos are widely available through public libraries.
With the increase in the range of titles available, the demand for open captioned videos has also increased. The use of video material is often used extensively for education and training. Many videos used in the classroom are being captioned, not only to provide access for students who have a hearing loss, but to provide textual reinforcement of the spoken word for students who experience literacy difficulties.
There are many libraries all over the country who offer captioned videos for loan. Libraries which do not stock captioned videos are able to access these videos through the interlibrary loan service.
Captioned videos can be purchased directly from video distributors. Unfortunately there are very few retail outlets who stock captioned videos, and only a handful of video rental outlets carry captioned videos. So, for many Deaf and hearing-impaired Australians, their local library is the only way to access captioned videos. The Australian Caption Centre does not sell or lend captioned videos.
While captioned videos are marketed by video distributors, the Australian Caption Centre plays a key role in promoting captioned videos to Deaf and hearing-impaired Australians. We maintain an up-to-date catalogue of captioned videos and list details of new videos in the Centre's newsletter, Supertext® News, which is now published four times a year. We hope that by providing this vital information regarding captioned videos to consumers and providers that the demand for, and availability of, captioned videos will increase.
For further information contact the Australian Caption Centre. We are happy to answer all enquiries and to provide a free information kit and video catalogue upon request.
Amanda Lyons, Information Services Manager, Australian Caption Centre, Level 4, 187 Thomas Street, HAYMARKET NSW 2000. Tel (02) 9212 5277 TTY (02) 9212 3129 Fax (02) 9281 2198 E-mail: acc@auscap.com.au.
NSW LIBRARIES
State Library of NSW
Special Needs Service
500 titles
Tel (02) 9230 1414
TTY (02) 9230 1594
Fax (02) 9232 4816
ACT LIBRARIES
ACT Library Services
Trish Barron
250 titles
Tel (06) 207 5157
TTY (06) 207 5159
Fax (06) 207 5052
National Library of Australia
Reference Officer
20 titles
Tel (06) 262 1358; 262 1361
Fax (06) 262 1634
VIC LIBRARIES
State Film Centre of Victoria
Serena Beliotti
370 titles
Tel (03) 9651 1303
TTY (03) 9651 1507
Fax (03) 9651 1502
Werribee
Val Ganley
Over 200 titles
Tel (03) 9742 0888
Fax (03) 9748 9042
SA LIBRARIES
SA Film/Video Centre
Mark Gilbert
60 titles
Tel (08) 348 9355
Fax (08) 340 2524
West Torrens
Leeanne McEwen
350 titles
Tel (08) 43 6921
Fax (08) 234 5170
QLD LIBRARIES
Brisbane City Council Libraries (Acacia Ridge, Carina, Central
City, Everton Park)
Terry McPhail
592 titles
Tel (07) 3253 5644
Fax (07 3252 9278
State Library of Qld
Jenni Keppell
Approx. 280 titles
Tel (07) 3214 3200
Fax (07) 3214 3244
Videos from State Library of Qld are only available through interlibrary loan service
TAS LIBRARIES
Media Library
Renata Adams
21 titles
Tel (002) 33 7174
Fax (002) 33 7780
Glenorchy
Meryl Sinclair
100 titles
Tel/TTY (002) 33 8662
Fax (002) 73 2048
WA LIBRARIES
Library & Info Service of WA
Yvonne Coombs
156 titles
Tel (09) 427 3166
Fax (09) 427 3169
NT LIBRARIES
Media Library Service
Felicity Williams
126 titles
Tel (089) 99 5917
Fax (089) 99 5999
Audio Visual Supplies
Contact: Barbara Andrews
41 Carrington Parade
CURL CURL NSW 2096
Tel (02) 9905 1981
Fax (02) 9905 1981
Australian Large Print Audio and Video
Contact: Erica Mason-Walshe
Unit 4, 8-10 Catalina Drive
TULLAMARINE VIC 3043
Tel (03) 9338 0666
Fax (03) 9335 1903
Children's Video Centre
Contact: Paddy Elliot
41 St Andrew's Place
MELBOURNE EAST VIC 3002
Tel (03) 9651 1919
Fax (03) 9651 1238
Marcom Projects
Contact: Ray Moxon
PO Box 4215
LOGANHOLME D.C. Qld 4129
Tel (07) 3829 0540
Fax (07) 3829 0541
Maxwell's Video Collection
Contact: Max Bartlett
PO Box 575
AVALON BEACH NSW 2107
Tel (02) 973 2277
Fax (02) 918 7467
Video Bookshelf
Contact: Peter Benn
25 Nelson Street
BALACLAVA VIC 3183
Tel (03) 9534 7246
Fax (03) 9534 5832
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA, Canberra, ACT 2600,
AUSTRALIA, ABN: 28 346 858 075
Telephone + 61 2 6262 1111; Facsimile +61 2
6257 1703; TTY: 1800 026 372