Closed Captions

• Closed captioning (CC) Refers to lines of dialogue or other text displayed at the bottom of the screen in films, television programs, video games or other visual media.
• CCs can be transcriptions of screenplay, translations of it, or information to help viewers with low hearing understand what is shown.
• These systems are available for telephones at Riderwood. (More below.)
• Many of these devices may be helpful to those with servere hearing loss.

---

Captions on Xfinity TVs

• Additional assistance for using the Xfinity remote can be found on RiderwoodLife.com’ Help Page > Help > TV icon, which includes help for closed captions.
• Approaches to CC on are too numerous to elucidate here for other devices.

---

Telephones – Closed Captions

---

Closed Captioning on PCs

Windows PCs – Closed captioning can convert the audio part of a TV show or video to closed captions. For Windows-10 users,

1. Right-click or tap-and-hold anywhere on the video.
2. A menu bar appears at the bottom of the screen. If closed captioning is available, a CC icon will be displayed.
3. Tap or click the CC icon.
4. Tap or click the language you want to see closed captions in. Closed captioning appear.

• Note: If closed captioning is not available, a pop-up window will display “Not available.”
• More info: Changing caption settings, and, more generally, get to accessibility options by:
• Selecting   (Start) >   Settings > Accessibility > Captions.

Windows 11 – the approach is similar to that for Windows-10, Change caption settings

Linux User? Speech to Text Software for Linux

---

YouTube Captioning

---

• Live Transcribe , a Google app, can transcribe live speech to text in real time – one can read what is being said as it’s being said.
• Choose from over 80 languages.
• Save transcriptions for three days (copy / paste to move and save).
• Available on Google Pixel and some other Android phones (see detailed info).
• Notifications:
  • for potentially risky situations and personal situations based on sounds happening at home (for example, smoke alarm, siren, baby sounds).
  • via a flashing light or vibration.
• Install the app from the Google Play Store
  • More detailed info about the app.
  • Android accessibility overview – customizing Android devices with accessibility settings and apps, e.g.,

App for Droids  and   iPhones

---

Future Developments for Androids

• Automatic description of images – said to be coming Summer, 2022.
• The Explore mode, part of Lookout – reads text or describes an object in front of phone’s camera.
• Lookout is said to have other features enabled by AI. Most are aimed at vision impaired. See a description of features:
  Lookout By Google App: What It is and How to Use It

---

iOS / Apple Assistive Technology

• Many hearing assistive technologies are available for iOS / Apple devices. Availability varies between devices as well as versions of the operating system. Examples include:
• Conversation Boost for AirPods: Conversation Boost focuses AirPods Pro on the voice of the person directly in front of the listener.
• Sound Recognition – without hearing the sound. Notifies when a specific sound is detected with iPhones & iPads, e.g, for a doorbell or crying baby,
• “Tune” headphones to a listener’s hearing profile – enhancing frequencies that are missed.
• Sound processors available in consultation with an audiologist.
• Mono Audio – combines stereo music channels into one channel to balance differences by playing both audio channels in both ears.
  • Adjust the balance for greater volume in either ear
• Sensory Alerts – See or feel them.
  • Visual or vibrating alerts for incoming phone and FaceTime calls, new text messages, mail, and calendar events.
  • Set an LED light flash for incoming calls or have an iPhone display a photo of the caller.
  • On a Mac, have it flash its screen when an app needs your attention.
• Real-Time Text (RTT)
  • Make and receive RTT calls.
  • RTT provides instant transmission of a message as it is being composed (support for braille displays).
  • Transcripts for RTT calls are saved in your call history (depends on cell carrier).
• Closed Captioning – text transcription of video and nonverbal communication. Support for Apple TV.
• Future Enhancements, recently reported in The Washington Post:
  • Magnifier for camera lens for reading.
  • Door detection – think numbers and text on and around a door and whether a turn of a knob or push of a bar is needed to open it (only on iPhones in the 12 and 13 Pro series).
  • Teach a phone to recognize specific kinds of audio cues.

---

Catch-All

Catch-All is included for those who might find this info useful. It’s not for hearing impaired but for low vision and the cotnitivly impaired.

Phones for Memory Compromised – “Rax Mobility”

---

Text-to-Speech

This is, sort-of, the obverse of hearing assist: Android devices can convert text to speech to enable listening to documents. A how-to is available at Lifewire:
Text-to-Speech Feature on Android.

---