• Closed captioning is used to describe the addition of text on a television or video screen that provides the viewers with additional information. Closed captions are usually an optional feature, and the viewer can choose whether or not to use the closed captions. For example, closed captions might display the text of the sound that is occurring in a program. However, you may not know that there are certain closed captioning requirements.
  
  

Americans with Disabilities Act

• In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed to ensure equal opportunity and less disadvantages for individuals who suffer from a disability. In Title III of this act, the law stipulates that public facilities must provide access to verbal information on televisions, films or slide shows. Public facilities were defined as, but not limited to, places such as hospitals, shopping centers, museums, restaurants and bars. Additionally, the act stipulated that any public service announcements that were federally funded must be captioned. Under this provision of the act, captions were considered the easiest way for this information to be presented to deaf or almost deaf individuals. Thus, this act made it illegal for public facilities or federally funded messages on the television, in films or in slide shows not to provide captions.
  
  

Telecommunications Act

• In 1996, the Telecommunications Act further defined rules beyond these caption requirements. On Jan. 1, 1998, an eight-year period of transition began. This period demanded that new programs launched in this time must be 100 percent captioned. For shows that were launched prior to this date, a 10-year transition period was issued for these shows to become 75 percent captioned.
  
  

Exemptions

• There are certain shows that are exempt from these rules. The first category of exemptions is the self-implementing exemptions. This means that these shows operate automatically and do not need to petition the Federal Communications Commission. The types of shows that fall into this category are public service announcements shorter than 10 minutes and not funded by federal dollars, shows that air from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. and shows that are primarily textual in nature. The second category of exemptions is the undue burden exemption. This exempts shows from closed captioning when compliance would pose an undue burden for the show. To fall under this category, the show must issue a petition to the FCC.