Subtitles for deaf and hard of hearing people are a text display of dialogue and sound effects of an event, such as a show, television programme or film. These shows and programmes become completely inaccessible to deaf and hard of hearing people without the use of subtitles. And when subtitles on television have been produced for hearing audiences, such as translations of foreign language films, they usually don't include a description in text of sound effects. However, this is vital for deaf and hard of hearing people, particularly when those sounds are off screen.

Many hearing people would benefit from increased subtitling. As well as deaf and hard of hearing people, people learning a second language, people with learning difficulties and children starting to read also benefit from subtitling. So by increasing the amount of subtitling on television, broadcasters are providing an improved service for the majority of their viewers.

Subtitling on television

Subtitling makes television accessible for many deaf and hard of hearing people, as well as many hearing people. Without it, television is completely inaccessible for them. Television is received in two different formats in the UK, analogue and digital television. Subtitling is provided in both of these television formats but they each deliver the subtitles in different ways and with different results.

Analogue television

To get subtitles on analogue television in the UK, you need a television that has teletext. Teletext is available on ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. On BBC1 and BBC2, this service is called Ceefax.

Subtitles are not displayed automatically. You have to press the appropriate button on your TV remote control and key in the numbers "8-8-8" to show them. Some remote controls have a direct subtitle button.

File transfer between broadcasters and subtitling companies has mainly been by means of the European Broadcasting Union's File Transfer Format 3264. In general, carriage of subtitling is achieved by use of dedicated lines such as 20, 320 and 335 within the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) and accessed in most countries by reserved teletext pages such as 888. The European Broadcasting Union and others are looking to see what should replace the File Transfer Format 3264. This includes involvement in the World Wide Web Consortium work on Timed Text.

Digital Television

Subtitles on digital television are sometimes called digital subtitles or digital video broadcasting (DVB) subtitles. Unlike subtitles on analogue television, they are not part of teletext.

Distributing subtitles digitally has clear advantages, not least in its resilience to interference. Its use is currently limited to those countries adopting digital services. UK regulations state that digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasts have to have subtitles, and the implementation here of DVB subtitling has resulted in a well-tested and stable method of delivering legible subtitling to digital receivers. This is known as ETSI EN 300 743.

DVB offers a second subtitling system known as DVB teletext (ETSI EN 300 472). DVB subtitling using bitmaps offers many benefits compared with subtitling via teletext, providing complex fonts and text, and offers more flexibility, more colours and better graphics.

Further information

You can read more about subtitling on television in our factsheet "Subtitles on television, DVDs and videotapes".

Subtitling in the theatre

Captioning is a way of converting what someone says into visible text, so that people with hearing loss can have access to live performances. Captions are produced by a computer and a display unit installed on or near the stage, and let people with hearing loss understand what is being said at the time it is said. A captioned performance is delivered, live, by a trained captioner. Sound effects and off-stage noises can also be included, and the captioner can use a full or edited text in any language.

The script is formatted using a sophisticated text editing routine, and displayed on a LED screen that is modified with an interface allowing the correct display of the text on the screen. The text is scrolled at the same time as the actors speak. If the scrolling is timed correctly many people with some residual hearing can hear the actors much more clearly.

There are organisations which offer a captioning service to theatres, such as Stagetext (external link, opens new browser window), a charity set up to make theatre accessible to people with a hearing loss. Some theatres are buying their own equipment that will let them to deliver captioned performances in-house once they have appropriately trained captioners.

Subtitling in the cinema

It's been possible to add captions to films since the advent of the cinema. Indeed, before the development of "talkies", all films were routinely captioned. However, from the 1920s until recently, the only films that were subtitled were either foreign language films or old movies shown at deaf film festivals. For 80 years deaf and hard of hearing people have been almost entirely excluded from the cinema.

Now, cinema subtitling is becoming more widespread, and is made possible through the use of open and closed captioning. In the past, cinemas waited until a specially captioned (also called “hard” captioned) print was available. In these limited special prints, the captions are etched or overlaid onto the film. However, recent technology advancements, such as open caption subtitling, have let cinemas project captions on to the screen, so that they can use a standard release print of the film for captioned shows. Because it's more flexible, cinemas can schedule more open-captioned screenings at more convenient times.

Subtitling on DVDs

Many films released on DVD have subtitles. You can check whether they do by looking at the back of the DVD box, where it should list what subtitles are available. The DVD player will display the subtitles on your television screen.

Some DVD films have subtitles in two or three languages, including English. Subtitles specifically for deaf and hard of hearing people are also available on some DVDs. These subtitles are more descriptive: they tell you if there is a particular noise or music playing, so it’s easier for hearing impaired people to follow the film.

How to play a film with subtitles

If you first select the “play” or “play movie” option from the root menu of the DVD disk, which appears after inserting the disk into the player, the film will start without subtitles. If subtitles are available, you need to select the subtitles option first. Another menu may appear if the subtitles are available in more than one language. Once you have chosen the subtitles option you can then choose the "play" option and the film will play with subtitles.

Some DVD players have a subtitle button on their remote control. And some can be programmed so that subtitles always appear, usually in English.

Further information

You can find out more by contacting us by email at ict@rnid.org.uk.