Legal Rights of Persons With Disabilities - Ossh.com

B. Television Broadcasting
1. Emergency Information
Television stations must usually transmit emergency information both aurally and visually when
conducted under a national, state or local level Emergency Alert System (EAS) plan. Other emergency
information may be broadcast both visually and aurally or just visually. (47 C.F.R.
' 73.1250(h).)
2. Other Broadcasting
There are a number of ways of providing access to television programming for individuals with
hearing impairments, none of which is wholly satisfactory from all perspectives. Providing sign language
interpreters may not assist all individuals with hearing impairments. Open captioning, where written words
on the screen are displayed to all viewers, provides the most access, but may be distracting to hearing
viewers. Closed captioning, where written words are displayed only on those television sets that have a
decoder, provides access only to people who can afford the decoder. All three methods impose some cost
on the television station.
There are currently no laws or regulations which require television stations to provide any specific
amount of broadcasting which is accessible to viewers with hearing impairments (except for emergency
information, discussed above).
38