Friday, October 8, 2010

Closed-Captioning Coming to Internet Video

President Barack Obama will sign a bill into law this morning requiring captioning of Internet videos. The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act requires video programming devices such as MP3 players and digital video recorders be capable of closed captioning, video description and emergency alerts. Remote controls will be required to closed captioning buttons that are easily accessable. The measure also gives the blind access to the Internet through improved user interfaces for smart phones. Any big company producing more than 60 hours a week of video will be required to include audio descriptions.