General

RWC made its debut in 1997 as part of regular feature film presentations in American movie theatres, allowing people with hearing loss to attend movies and view captions on a personal screen. The device replicates the look of open captions by displaying captions on clear Perspex which is placed between the viewer and the screen.

Below are some of the potential hurdles that have been presented and our explanation of how they can be overcome.

Not everyone will receive the AD

While only those with an AD-ready digital TV or set-top box will be able receive the audio description, the trial proved that AD could successfully be transmitted to all parts of Australia

In Groves' interview with Goldberg he talks about how a range of options to watch captioned movies is a good thing, in reference to other cinema access technologies such as Sony’s Entertainment Access Glasses and CaptiView. He also hints at changes to Rear Window Captioning licensing fees which potentially could widen market opportunities for WGBH.

Samsung is yet to release a list of the phone’s key specifications, including which assistive technologies it includes. The Galaxy S4 runs on the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system which comes with a screen magnifier, screen reader and gesture mode by default. However, as Android is open source, manufacturers such as Samsung can pick and choose which features they include. This explains the wide inconsistencies in levels of accessibility across Android smartphones and tables.

Google TV is a digital media receiver, similar to Apple TV. It runs on the Android operating system and allows you to stream media from the web to a connected TV. This means you can listen to music, watch videos on YouTube, watch TV shows and movies, download media from Google Play, check your email and surf the web on your TV.

Videos and multimedia are being used more and more in the classroom – a trend the new Australian curriculum certainly encourages. Using video not only allows for variety and engagement, but for a real benefit for students’ literacy: captions. Similar to foreign language subtitles, captions are the text version of audio, including speech, sounds and music.

Captions are essential for students who are Deaf or hearing impaired and also have immense benefits for students learning an additional language, struggling readers, and visual learners.