CBC CBC Accessibility & Disability Services 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the primary difference between 'open captions' and 'closed captions' in broadcast media?
- Open captions are always visible and cannot be turned off; closed captions can be toggled by the viewer (Correct answer)
- Open captions are only for online video; closed captions are for television
- Open captions are provided by the broadcaster; closed captions are user-generated
- Open captions include speaker identification; closed captions do not
Correct answer: Open captions are always visible and cannot be turned off; closed captions can be toggled by the viewer
Open captions are burned into the video image and always visible, while closed captions are an encoded data stream that viewers can enable or disable using their TV settings.
Question 2: Under FCC rules, what is the maximum permissible delay for live program captions before it violates synchronicity standards?
- There is no hard numeric limit; captions must appear 'in close time alignment' as judged in context (Correct answer)
- Exactly 1 second
- 5 seconds
- 10 seconds
Correct answer: There is no hard numeric limit; captions must appear 'in close time alignment' as judged in context
The FCC does not specify a hard numeric latency limit but requires captions to appear in 'close time alignment' with the audio, assessed contextually.
Question 3: Which organization provides the NBC (National Board for Certification) credential that the CBC designation falls under?
- The National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) (Correct answer)
- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
- The National Association of the Deaf (NAD)
- The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE)
Correct answer: The National Court Reporters Association (NCRA)
The CBC credential is awarded by the NCRA's National Board for Certification, which sets standards for court reporters and broadcast captioners.
Question 4: What does 'completeness' mean as an FCC caption quality standard?
- Captions must cover all words and sounds throughout the entire program, not just portions of it (Correct answer)
- Every word must be spelled out fully with no abbreviations
- All speakers must be individually identified in the captions
- Captions must include both spoken dialogue and background music descriptions
Correct answer: Captions must cover all words and sounds throughout the entire program, not just portions of it
Completeness requires that captions cover the entire program from start to finish, without leaving captioned gaps or missing dialogue segments.
Question 5: How do broadcast captioners typically indicate non-speech sounds (such as music or laughter) in closed captions for deaf viewers?
- Using brackets or parentheses with a description, such as [LAUGHTER] or [MUSIC PLAYING] (Correct answer)
- By using all-caps text without any special markers
- By leaving a blank line in the caption stream
- By inserting a symbol from the caption encoder settings
Correct answer: Using brackets or parentheses with a description, such as [LAUGHTER] or [MUSIC PLAYING]
Non-speech audio is conventionally represented with bracketed or parenthetical text descriptions so deaf viewers understand the full audio context of a program.
Question 6: Which section of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires federal agencies to make electronic and information technology accessible, including captioned video content?
- Section 508 (Correct answer)
- Section 504
- Section 301
- Section 255
Correct answer: Section 508
Section 508 mandates that federal agencies ensure their electronic and information technology, including video content, is accessible to people with disabilities.
CBC CBC Accessibility & Disability Services 2
What is the primary difference between 'open captions' and 'closed captions' in broadcast media?