Analysis of Demand for Decoders of Television Captioning for Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Children and Adults.

This market research report analyzed the published literature, the size of the deaf/severely hard-of-hearing population, factors that affect demand for closed-captioned television decoders, and the Supply of decoders. The analysis found that the number of hearing-impaired people in the United States is between 16 and 21 million; hearing impairment is more prevalent with older and lower income people. TYIl size of the market for decoders is considered to be approximately one million. Sales of decoders, about 208,000 from 1980 through 1983, were affected by the following factors: level of consumer knowledge, reliance on residaal hearing and lipreading, cost, and influence of family members. The report concluded that various actions could influence decoder purchase and possibly expand the market for decoders, such as expanding the knowledge of decoders through a public awareness campaign and having the National Captioning Institute incorporate innovations in decoder technology. Various government agencies are encouraged to undertake additional research on degree of hearing loss and on the use of closed-captioned decoders as instructional tools for the hearing impaired, learning disabled, people with limited English speaking ar;.,11ty, and the adult beginning reader. (JDD) *****************************************************************$***** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ***************************************k*******************************