In 1996, Congress created closed captioning requirements for television content.  Between that point and 2005, very few exemptions were given out by the FCC.  In 2006, an order provided a blanket exemption for churches based on the hardship and financial burden of providing closed captions.  As a result, hundreds of exemptions were handed out that year.

The recent reversal from the FCC came after five years of pressure from organizations and advocates for the deaf and hard of hearing communities.  Since the actual cases of the hundreds of exempt churches were never individually considered, advocates claimed that many of the exemptions may have been unwarranted.

The FCC’s recent overturn now means that many of the churches may face a decision of either paying for closed captioning service or potentially going off the air.  As previously discussed here on this blog, there are many positive benefits that result from churches providing closed captions for their television programming. In short, people that are deaf or hard of hearing deserve the same access to television content as everyone else.  Religious programming is no exception.  In fact, many shut ins and elderly people depend on religious programming for teaching and encouragement because they cannot travel to and from church regularly.  Since many people in this group also suffer from hearing problems, closed captioning is of incalculable value to them.

Providing closed captions can certainly be a financial obstacle for many faith-based organizations, but the cost pales in comparison to the cost of air time and other production expenses.  If a ministry chooses to invest in television as a means of spreading its message, it only makes sense that every effort be made to effectively deliver the message to everyone that wants to watch.  After all, if a message is worth being on the air, isn’t the audience worth the extra effort of complete accessibility?

Beyond mandates from the FCC or requirement from television stations, closed captioning matters.  Millions of people depend on it every single day.  The churches at the core of this issue may understandably have difficulty deciding what to do, but it is certainly important to remember that the return on this investment is priceless.

Well, here’s a little tip that may save your small business some money.  If you have closed captioned programming, you may be eligible to receive a tax credit for providing accessibility to persons with disabilities.  It’s called the Disabled Access Credit and is reported on IRS form 8826.

Your small business could qualify to receive a tax credit of up to half of your closed-captioning expenses.  Do the math.  If you’ve closed-captioned a weekly show, you may have up to $5,000 in tax credits.  Of course, every situation is different, so you need to consult a tax professional to see if your situation qualifies.

Here’s some info as provided by the U.S. Department of Labor.

What is it?
Small businesses may take an annual tax credit for making their businesses accessible to persons with disabilities.

Who is eligible?
Small businesses are eligible if they, in the previous year, earned a maximum of $1 million in revenue or had 30 or fewer full-time employees.

What is the amount?
The credit is 50% of expenditures over $250, not to exceed $10,250, for a maximum benefit of $5,000. The credit amount is subtracted from the total tax liability.

With only a few exceptions, all programming for broadcast in the United States must be closed captioned.  The rules for the requirement of closed captions were directed by the U.S. Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and became effective starting in 1998.  Since then, the required amount of captioning has been steadily increasing. Today, nearly 100% of all English and Spanish language programming is closed captioned.

The FCC has created a fact sheet for more information on closed captioning for broadcast. It tells exactly what closed captioning is, who has to provide it, and what media are affected by the laws. The fact sheet also has information about how to file a complaint if someone isn’t following captioning rules and, if you’re a provider, some ideas for how not to become the recipient of such complaints. The fact sheet can be found here.

Federal and State Electronic Information Technology (EIT)

Federal agencies must make their electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to people with disabilities as required by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, a piece of legislation that was strengthened by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998.  In part, Section 508 requires that “all training and informational video and multimedia productions which support the agency’s mission, regardless of format, that contain speech or other audio information necessary for the comprehension of the content, shall be open or closed captioned”. For more information, visit http://www.section508.gov.

In addition, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires state and local governments to ensure effective communication with individuals with disabilities where necessary to ensure that communications with individuals with hearing, vision, or speech impairments are as effective as communications with others. The public entity must provide appropriate auxiliary aids.

This means that, one way or another, government has to make all of the information available to all people. This may mean providing a transcription of a meeting after the fact. Many state and local governments are opting instead to caption webcast meetings so that hearing-impaired citizens can participate in much the same way as any hearing person.

The Future

There is currently a movement to pass legislation that will define and regulate accessibility for developing technology.  H.R. 3101 was introduced in June 2009 by Edward Markey (D-MA).  Called the “Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009,” this legislation will, if enacted, amend the nation’s Communications Act.  With more than 240 national, state, and community-based organizations supporting the legislation, and with telecommunications becoming more essential to our daily lives all the time, it looks like it won’t be long before captions will be required across all forms of visual media.

Update:

The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act was signed into law in October 2010.  For more updated information, please click here.