By Ben Kalb
Who Is Required To Close-Caption?
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.
