People with chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes often look for information about their health conditions on television or the internet. When people are hearing impaired or deaf they often use closed captioning so that they can get all of the information that is being broadcast. When people are both hearing impaired and have a chronic illness, closed captioning is essential.
But since the internet has also become a venue for television shows, health-related or otherwise, people with hearing difficulties are often left out of the information loop, because there is no closed captioning available when mainstream television shows are shown on the internet.
A new bill that is before Congress right now could make closed captioning a realitiy for internet broadcasts of television shows. HR 3101, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessiblity Act of 2009 could make it much easier for hearing impaired and deaf people to get the information they need from internet versions of health broadcasts.
For example, right now, if the Discovery Channel airs a program on type 2 diabetes, the television broadcast would have closed captioning while the internet version would not. HR 3101 would ensure that all television shows rebroadcast for the internet would have the captioning as well.
If you are interested, visit the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology or COAT website to see how you can help this bill get passed.
Or, check out Caption Action 2 on Facebook.
For more information on this and other topics for hearing impaired and deaf people, check out About.com's Deafness Website, hosted by guide, Jamie Berke.
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