When most of us think of captions on the bottom of the screen we think of the sort that you can turn on and off and are meant for those that are hearing impaired. You might also see them at an airport or in the waiting room for people waiting for autism treatment where there is too much going on to hear what is happening on the screen. But, this is not the only choice when it comes to captions. Closed captions are those that can be turned on and off by the person watching. Open captions are always attached to the picture and are used throughout television and films.

One of the main places where you might encounter open captioning is if you're someone who likes to see foreign films. While you might be able to hear everything that they people in the picture are talking about, you might need a little help with a translation at the bottom of the screen. When you bring a foreign film back to your Toronto condos or watch it in the movie theatre, you might not be able to turn off the English subtitles at the bottom of the screen. If this happens then you are watching a film where they chose to add open captioning instead of closed.

There are also many news and educational programs and videos that have opted for open captioning. If you were watching a video to help you learn new cooking techniques for your Toronto catering business and the chef had a thick accent that some people might not fully understand then they could add captioning to help you make out all of his instructions. Or, you might find some news programs always have some sort of captioning going along the bottom of the screen. This could say exactly what they are talking about or could talk about all of the current top stories.

When you're making an sort of recording and planning on adding subtitles or captions you need to decide if they are going to be closed or open. Sometimes it's easy to decide between the two. If you're making a commercial for doll houses that will be played on regular television then you will usually opt for closed. And if you're making a film with pieces in German and French then you might want open captions for those sections. There are certainly advantages and disadvantages for both. The purpose is to have people understand the film or television show whether they have been deaf since they were in cloth diapers or have some other limitation that is keeping them from fully hearing that film or television program.