Closed captioning is important in everyday life because it helps people who are deaf or hard of hearing enjoy TV, videos, and online content. It also helps people learn new languages, watch videos in noisy places, or follow along in quiet environments like libraries. As more videos are made for websites, social media, and online learning, the need for captions is growing fast. This creates more jobs for captioners and makes sure more people can enjoy and understand video content.

Publicly funded research played a key role in starting closed captioning. In the 1970s, government agencies like the National Institute of Standards and Technology worked with TV stations to test early captioning systems, after being petitioned by a deaf woman to provide captions for emergency announcements. Later, the U.S. Department of Education helped fund the National Captioning Institute (NCI), which created the first captioning for live events, including news programs, sports, and the Academy Awards. NCI also developed the first captioned children’s program, Sesame Street. Federal funding for closed captioning helped a new technology grow into a valuable service that supports jobs and helps millions of people every day.