NAD, NFL, and CBS Collaborate to Increase Captioned Super Bowl Commercials

NAD, NFL, and CBS Collaborate to Increase
Captioned Super Bowl Commercials

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and the National Football League
(NFL) along with CBS Corporation, the network airing Super Bowl XLIV on
February 7, 2010, have collaborated to make advertisers who purchase Super
Bowl commercials aware of the importance of captioning their content. As a
result of these efforts, viewers should notice an increased number of
captioned commercials compared to previous Super Bowls. The NAD thanks the
NFL and CBS Corporation for their efforts to promote closed captioning of
the television commercials.

Working alongside with the NAD and the NFL, CBS encouraged all of their
Super Bowl advertisers to close caption their commercials. The NAD
appreciates the efforts of the NFL and CBS on this important issue for the
deaf and hard of hearing community. The NAD will monitor the results as we
pursue a fully captioned experience from start to finish for all future
Super Bowls.

The Super Bowl experience includes not only the exciting battle between two
football conference champions, but also groundbreaking creative ads which
have become a cultural phenomenon. While the Super Bowl game has been
captioned for years, the commercials have remained less accessible. With the
help of the NFL, the percentage of Super Bowl commercials captioned in last
year’s Super Bowl showed a significant improvement. The deaf and hard of
hearing community has engaged in an annual ritual of counting the number of
captioned advertisements during the Super Bowl.

Captioning is an inexpensive way to ensure that the entire televised Super
Bowl experience is fully accessible to everyone. 36 million deaf and hard of
hearing people in the United States rely on captioning to have the same
experience, and many others such as those watching the game in noisy sports
bars also benefit from captions.

The National Association of the Deaf
8630 Fenton Street, Suite 820
Silver Spring, MD 20910-3819
United States

Source:
http://www.nad.org/news/2010/2/nad-nfl-and-cbs-collaborate-increase-captioned-super-bowl-commercials

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