Do you still struggle to hear the TV, even with your hearing aids?

Posted Tuesday February 13, 2024

According to “The Spinoff”, 38% of Kiwis use closed captions or subtitles on a regular basis. Closed captions are those you choose to turn on for the programme you are watching. Their benefits include:

• accessibility for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
• improved understanding of the programme
• understanding foreign accents or 'mumblers'
• flexible viewing in sound-sensitive environments, for example, if the sound is on mute because someone is sleeping, you have small children, or there is noise in the background
• accessibility for people who speak another language.

There are of course disadvantages:

• they can distract the viewer from the programme
• they take up space on a screen, especially if there are multiple speakers
• captions aren't available on all programmes.

Closed captions are available on most platforms — TVNZ+, ThreeNow, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and Neon has started to add them to more-and-more shows. Turning them on is not the same process for all TVs, some require a bit of set up so you’lll need to check your owner’s manual, but for some it’s a simple matter of pressing the CC button on your remote control.

If you struggle to hear your TV, we strongly recommend you turn on closed captions for all programmes to avoid missing out.