Closed captioning (CC) and subtitling are both processes of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information. Both are typically used as a transcription of the audio portion of a program as it occurs, sometimes including descriptions of non-speech elements. Other uses have included providing a textual alternative language translation of a presentation's primary audio language that is usually burned-in to the video and unselectable.
Computer accessibility refers to the accessibility of a computer system to all people, regardless of disability type or severity of impairment. The term accessibility is most often used in reference to specialized hardware or software, or a combination of both, designed to enable the use of a computer by a person with a disability or impairment. Computer accessibility often has direct positive effects on people with disabilities.
Vonage is an American cloud communications provider operating as a subsidiary of Ericsson. Headquartered in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, the organization was founded in 1998 as Min-X as a provider of residential telecommunications services based on voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). In 2001, the organization changed its name to Vonage.
A telecommunications relay service, also known as TRS, relay service, or IP-relay, or Web-based relay service, is an operator service that allows people who are deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, or have a speech disorder to place calls to standard telephone users via a keyboard or assistive device. Originally, relay services were designed to be connected through a TDD, teletypewriter (TTY) or other assistive telephone device. Services gradually have expanded to include almost any real-time text capable technology such as a personal computer, laptop, mobile phone, PDA, and many other devices. The first TTY was invented by deaf scientist Robert Weitbrecht in 1964. The first relay service was established in 1974 by Converse Communications of Connecticut.
Audio description, also referred to as a video description, described video, or more precisely visual description, is a form of narration used to provide information surrounding key visual elements in a media work for the benefit of blind and visually impaired consumers. These narrations are typically placed during natural pauses in the audio, and sometimes during dialogue if deemed necessary. Occasionally when a film briefly has subtitled dialogue for a character speaking a different language in the film such as in the 1977 film, Star Wars: A New Hope with Greedo's confrontation with Han Solo, the narrator will read out the dialogue in character.
Grass Valley is a manufacturer of television production and broadcasting equipment. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, it was formed by the March 2014 merger of the original Grass Valley with Miranda Technologies, which were both acquired by American networking company Belden in 2014 and 2012, respectively. In February 2018 owners Belden merged Grass Valley with new acquisition Snell Advanced Media. On July 2, 2020, Grass Valley announced the completion of its acquisition by private equity firm, Black Dragon Capital, from Belden Inc.
Motorola Solutions, Inc., is an American video equipment, telecommunications equipment, software, systems and services provider that succeeded Motorola, Inc., following the spinoff of the mobile phone division into Motorola Mobility in 2011. The company is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Within the field of human–computer interaction, game accessibility refers to the accessibility of video games. More broadly, game accessibility refers to the accessibility of all gaming products, including video games, tabletop RPGs, board games, and related products. Video game accessibility is considered a sub-field of computer accessibility, which studies how software and computers can be made accessible to users with various types of impairments.
Captionmax is one of North America's largest closed captioning and media accessibility companies. The company is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with additional locations in New York City, New York and Burbank, California. The company provides captions, subtitles, translation, video description, and as-broadcast scripts for over 450 customers including all major broadcast and cable TV networks, production companies, studios, distributors, educational institutions, government agencies, large corporations and Internet portals. Some clients include Warner Bros. Television, NBCUniversal, McGraw-Hill, Viacom Media Networks and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Subtitles are text representing the contents of the audio in a film, television show, opera or other audiovisual media. Subtitles might provide a transcription or translation of spoken dialogue. Although naming conventions can vary, captions are subtitles that include written descriptions of other elements of the audio like music or sound effects. Captions are thus especially helpful to people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Other times, subtitles add information not present in the audio. Localizing subtitles provide cultural context to viewers, for example by explaining to an unfamiliar American audience that sake is a type of Japanese wine. Lastly, subtitles are sometimes used for humor, like in Annie Hall where subtitles show the characters' inner thoughts, which contradict what they were actually saying in the audio.
Black Box is a multinational System Integration and products solution provider headquartered in Texas, United States.
AMI-tv is a Canadian, English-language, digital cable specialty channel owned by the non-profit organization Accessible Media. AMI-tv broadcasts a selection of general entertainment programming with accommodations for those who are visually or hearing impaired, with audio descriptions on the primary audio track and closed captioning available across all programming.
Selectable Output Control (SOC) is a content protection Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology that is incorporated into approved devices that enables the Multichannel Video Programming Distributor to disable non-secure audio-video output by encoding the video with a specific signal. In practice, SOC aims to limit the output of high definition video over non-secure analog outputs such as component video connections. When enabled, SOC will only output high definition content over a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) to devices that are High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) approved. This means that when SOC is enabled for a program, older televisions that do not have an HDMI port or are not HDCP compliant will not be able to view content. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has, until recently, had a ban on the use of SOC.
Genesis Partners is an Israeli venture capital firm, founded in 1996 by Eddy Shalev and Eyal Kishon.
Softeq Development Corporation is a privately-held, full-stack development company focusing on low-level programming hardware,, and software apps for web, desktop, and mobile. Softeq builds end-to-end IoT and cloud infrastructure solutions, and provides technology business consulting services, and is an ISO 13485:2016 company with certified partnerships with Amazon, Microsoft, and Xamarin. Softeq serves Fortune Global 500 companies: Verizon, Epson, Purple Innovations, Microsoft, Lenovo, AMD, Disney, Intel, NVIDIA, and Halo by PAWS. From 2018 to 2021 Softeq appeared in Inc. 5000, the annual rankings of the fastest-growing privately-held companies in the United States. Softeq company is headquartered in Houston, TX with development centers in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Monterrey, Mexico with offices in Munich, Germany, and London, United Kingdom. Softeq has over 500 employees globally.
AMI-télé is a Canadian, French-language digital cable specialty channel owned by the non-profit organization Accessible Media Inc. (AMI). AMI-télé is a French version of AMI's English-language service AMI-tv, and broadcasts a selection of general entertainment programming with accommodations for those who are visually or hearing impaired, consisting of described video on the primary audio track and closed captioning available across all of its programming. The channel also broadcasts series on accessibility- and disability-related topics.
Securus Technologies is a technology communications firm serving department of corrections facilities and incarcerated individuals across the country. The company is a subsidiary of Aventiv Technologies, which in 2020 announced an ambitious multi-year transformation effort to change the company into a technology company for rehabilitation, and to make its products affordable and accessible for consumers. In the past, the company has faced criticism over phone call pricing, data security, monopoly and product innovation.
Assistive Technology for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is special technology built to assist those who are deaf or suffer from hearing loss. Examples of such technology include hearing aids, video relay services, tactile devices, alerting devices and technology for supporting communication.
Pluto TV is a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service owned and operated by the Paramount Streaming division of Paramount Global.
The Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA) is a United States accessibility law. Signed on October 8, 2010, by then-president Barack Obama, the bill amended the Communications Act of 1934 to include updated requirements for ensuring the accessibility of "modern" telecommunications to people with disabilities.
