FCC: All Web TV Must Have Captions By The End Of September

Deaf and hard of hearing viewers have been pushing for mandatory captions for web video for years now and, while we’ve seen steps in the direction of making online video more accessible, nothing has been passed making captions obligatory, until now.

Deaf and hard of hearing viewers have been pushing for mandatory captions for web video for years now and, while we’ve seen steps in the direction of making online video more accessible, nothing has been passed making captions obligatory, until now.

Janko Roettgers of GigaOM reports that starting next month web TV needs to have captions.  A few days ago, the FCC ruled that, beginning on September 30, 2012, television networks and online video sites will need to begin providing closed captions for any online TV content.

Roettgers writes, “The ruling reaffirmed the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, which was signed into law by President Obama in 2010, as well as an FCC ruling from earlier this year.”

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