NAD, NFL, CBS collaborate to make Super Bowl advertisers aware of importance of captioning

From the National Association of the Deaf (NAD):

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and the National Football League (NFL) along with CBS Corporation, the network airing Super Bowl XLIV on February 7, 2010, have collaborated to make advertisers who purchase Super Bowl commercials aware of the importance of captioning their content. As a result of these efforts, viewers should notice an increased number of captioned commercials compared to previous Super Bowls. The NAD thanks the NFL and CBS Corporation for their efforts to promote closed captioning of the television commercials.

Working alongside with the NAD and the NFL, CBS encouraged all of their Super Bowl advertisers to close caption their commercials. The NAD appreciates the efforts of the NFL and CBS on this important issue for the deaf and hard of hearing community. The NAD will monitor the results as we pursue a fully captioned experience from start to finish for all future Super Bowls.

The Super Bowl experience includes not only the exciting battle between two football conference champions, but also groundbreaking creative ads which have become a cultural phenomenon. While the Super Bowl game has been captioned for years, the commercials have remained less accessible. With the help of the NFL, the percentage of Super Bowl commercials captioned in last year's Super Bowl showed a significant improvement. The deaf and hard of hearing community has engaged in an annual ritual of counting the number of captioned advertisements during the Super Bowl.

Captioning is an inexpensive way to ensure that the entire televised Super Bowl experience is fully accessible to everyone. 36 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States rely on captioning to have the same experience, and many others such as those watching the game in noisy sports bars also benefit from captions.