SMPTE Centennial: Closed Captioning and Video Description—A Brief Historical Perspective

Mark Turits

To mark the occasion of the SMPTE Centennial year in 2016, this article covers some of the history and milestones in accessible media for the film and television industries that have made closed captioning and video description a reality for deaf and hard of hearing, as well as for blind and visually impaired consumers around the world. The FCC recognizes the SMPTE Timed Text (SMPTE-TT) standard as a “safe harbor” interchange and delivery format. SMPTE also makes its standard for closed captioning of online video content (SMPTE 2052) available free of charge. Contributions in this area by SMPTE and its members have been recognized in the U.S. with awards presented to SMPTE by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) Emmy Awards.

Print ISSN
Electronic ISSN
2160-2492
Published
2016-08
Content type
Original Research
Keywords
Broadcasting, digital audio broadcasting, digital multimedia broadcasting, digital video broadcasting, satellite broadcasting, TV broadcasting
DOI
10.5594/JMI.2016.2587107