Television and vision: reading captions when vision is blurred

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Ophthalmology
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Closed captions are vital for hearing-impaired individuals.
• Hearing-impaired individuals often experience co-occurring visual impairments.
• Existing research indicates potential challenges in caption legibility due to visual deficits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of reduced visual acuity on the ability to read television closed captions.
• To determine if typical caption sizes are adequate for individuals with mild visual impairments.

Main Methods:

• The study involved 20 participants (6 hearing-impaired, 14 hearing) with normal baseline vision.
• Participants viewed captioned movie segments on a 19-inch screen from three meters.
• Visual acuity was systematically blurred using five different strengths of plus lenses.

Main Results:

• Caption reading performance was negatively affected by even minor induced blur.
• Small reductions in visual acuity led to decreased reading performance.
• The findings suggest that current caption sizes are insufficient for individuals with even slight visual impairments.

Conclusions:

• Reduced vision significantly hinders closed caption legibility.
• Television captioning may not be fully accessible to hearing-impaired individuals with common visual comorbidities.
• Further research into optimizing caption size and display for viewers with visual impairments is warranted.