CC, OC, SDH, and Subtitles: What's the Difference?

For the longest time, I would admittedly get frustrated with hearing people if they didn't understand why I needed captions, or how to tell if a DVD is captioned or subtitled. But then I saw the light and realized I spent more time talking about my frustration than I did educating people on the issue. (This actually pertains to a LOT of aspects of being HOH in the hearing world, not just captions!) So I decided I'm going to start blogging about these subjects as they come up. I guess you could call this the unofficial, blogging version of “Hearing Loss For Dummies.”

Closed Captioning and Open Captioning are both coded through the television monitor as opposed to the DVD player. Closed Captioning is white text enclosed in a black box. Open Captioning is white text that is not enclosed. The DVD program on my computer uses OC, whereas my television set uses CC. The one disadvantage of OC is it can be hard to see if the background is lighter. CC is much more common, probably for that reason.

You turn on the captions through your TV's menu. Since everyone's TV is different, a tutorial on how to turn on the captions would be pretty pointless. If you're starting to develop hearing loss and want to start using captions, take a look at the instruction manual for your TV. If you didn't keep it, you can probably find instructions online. Once you turn the captions on, they will stay turned on unless you manually turn them back off. When your TV is in CC mode, captions will go on automatically for DVDs, shows, and commercials that are captioned.

SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing): SDH is coded through the DVD player instead of the TV. It looks a lot like Open Captions. The text is usually white, but sometimes it's yellow. DVD's that don't have CC usually have SDH. Some have both. If I have a choice, I choose CC because, again, it gives you more contrast against lighter backgrounds.

Subtitles: The huge difference between subtitles and captions or SDH is what's in the text. The intention of subtitles is to make a movie accessible to a hearing person who speaks a different language. Often, they are not word-for-word, and they don't have sound effects that a person with hearing loss might miss, such as a knock at the door, a scream off-stage, etc. I'll use subtitles in a pinch when there are no other options, but they are not the same thing as captions or SDH.

How to tell if a DVD has captions or SDH: The CC or SDH icon will be on the back or spine of the DVD case. The “CC” is usually encased in a little TV symbol or a thick square. The “SDH” letters are sometimes in a box, but usually they're just by themselves. They often have an asterisk with the explanation of “subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing” at the bottom of the case.

If you've ever watched a movie with me, you've seen me check the DVD case to make sure it's captioned. This is what I'm looking for.

The legislation regarding what has to be captioned is a bit complicated. I'll have to do more research and go into more details in another post. But here's the short version: In the US, movies produced for entertainment purposes need to have CC or SDH by law. Special features do not. Documentaries also are not required to have captions. PBS puts captions on all their stuff, thankfully. Needless to say, the lack of captions on non-PBS documentaries made college a living nightmare!

If you have any other questions, please feel free to leave a comment! :)

Things Jesus Did NOT Say In Telling Us To Love Our Neighbors

For awhile now, I’ve noticed a really disturbing trend, both in myself and in the church at large.  We are adding to Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbors.  Here are some of the most common “additions” I’ve seen so far:

-“Love your neighbor only if they’re straight and are vehemently opposed to gay marriage.”

-“Love your neighbor only if they vote the way you do.”

-“Love your neighbor only if they interpret every last ounce of Scripture EXACTLY the way you do.”

We are called to love whoever G-d puts in front of us.  Loving them means acknowledging that G-d created them, and they are precious to Him.

Loving them means taking the log out of our own eyes, separating people from their issues, and admitting that we can’t possibly know everything about what causes same-sex attraction.  Loving our neighbors means embracing them as the individuals that they are.  Loving our neighbors means letting go of expectations and meeting them where they're at.

If Jesus wanted to create exceptions to the “love your neighbor” commandment, He would have.

But He didn’t.

Which means we don’t get to.

The Comparison Addiction

The idea of comparing ourselves to others is not new.  Heck, “thou shall not covet” made it into the 10 Commandments, for crying out loud.  Isn’t coveting really just code for comparing ourselves to others?  Maybe we don’t always get jealous of physical possessions or apperance.  Maybe we’re jealous of more abstract things, like strengths and character traits.  I’m having one of those moods where my personality feels like a cosmic joke, and I wish I could be anyone else.  Thanks to Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, comparison just got a lot easier, and a lot more addicting.

Yes, addicting.  Comparison is, essentially a spiritual drug addiction.  It impairs our judgment and our ability to make sound choices.  We lose our true selves to who we think we “should” be.  We know it’s bad for us, but we keep wanting more. 

If the church looked at comparison as a drug addiction, how would that change the way we see ourselves and everyone else?  Gotta wonder…

The Bullying Epidemic

Bullying is a subject that I hadn’t thought much about until recently, when I saw a discussion about it on a friend’s Facebook wall.  Ever since I read all those posts, I’ve been thinking more about my experiences with being bullied in late elementary and early junior high. 

As for finding a solution to this epidemic, I’ve come to a conclusion that will probably ruffle a lot of feathers: 

Bullying is a complex, societal problem that does not have a “quick fix.”  Most of the ideas I’ve heard from well-intentioned parents and teachers are great in theory, but they don’t always work in practice.  The two most common “solutions” to bullying these days are putting your child in private school and trying to create a school environment where students take a stand against bullying and peer violence.  I can’t say that these solutions never work, because for all I know someone else might have had better luck with them than I did.  But they don’t solve the bigger societal issues that contribute to bullying.

Here are the major problems in a nutshell:

1.)  We don’t practice what we preach.  Parents and teachers tell children that they need to treat each other with respect.  Unfortunately, we live in a world where most adults don’t do that.  If we respected each other, it would come more naturally for our kids, and bullying wouldn’t be anywhere near as common. 

2.)  Most children who turn into bullies have a rough time of it outside the classroom.  I knew enough about my bullies to know that every single one of them was dealing with something major.  Several of them had parents who were going through horrible divorces.  I remember in 5^th grade, one classmate in particular was having awful side effects from an ADHD medication, and he bullied everyone.  With so many students dealing with those kinds of situations, the odds of finding enough students to put together some kind of coalition is slim.

3.)  Even if there was enough interest in such a coalition, there is very little support and protection for students who actually want to take a stand against bullying and peer violence.  I’ve heard countless stories of high school students who were either suspended or threatened with suspension for breaking up fights, or standing up for a friend who was being harassed.  The “zero tolerance” policy isn’t going to work as long as there is also “zero tolerance” for students who actually want to do the right thing. 

I really wish I had an easy answer to the question of how do we stop bullying.  But the truth is, there is no such thing as an easy answer as long as we’ve got these bigger societal issues to contend with. 

Why I Blog

Every so often I try to work on one of the two books that are currently rolling around in my head, and I’m starting to come to the conclusion that writing a book is not for me, at least at this point in my life.

My reasoning for not wanting to publish a book right now is two-fold.  First of all, in order to get a book published, it has to be VERY good.  The competition is fierce.  Frankly, I don’t care whether or not my writing is good or bad.  I don’t do a blog because I want to be a good writer.  I do a blog because I want to be an honest writer.  I write what needs to be said.  Whether it’s good or bad is completely irrelevant.

Second of all, I hate the idea of someone not being able to read what I write because they can’t afford to buy my book.  Sure, I could write a book and it could end up in some library somewhere, but libraries don’t have every book.  Not being able to afford books is a bigger setback than most people realize.  I’ve gotten several messages from people telling me how much they appreciate what I write.  It’s such a joy to be able to share this gift with others.  I don’t want anyone to be deprived of that because they can’t afford to buy a book.  I’m playing around with the idea of putting a PayPal button on my blog, since I do put a considerable amount of work into it, and it would be nice to have a little more money to work with.  But the difference between that and selling a book is I wouldn’t be making people pay for it.  I would be asking them.  

20/20 Hearing? Not So Much

Recently I wrote up a list of common misconceptions about hearing loss.  I forgot about another big one, which I’m going to address right now: “Wearing hearing aids will give you ‘20/20 hearing.’ “

For awhile it really irritated me that people believed this, but now I can understand why some people think that’s how it works.  After all, eyeglasses and contacts correct most people’s vision to 20/20, or at least close enough to 20/20 that they don’t feel visually impaired when wearing their glasses or contacts.  If glasses can help people see “normally”, then it should stand to reason that hearing aids can help people hear “normally.”

How well a person hears with hearing aids or a cochlear implant (or two) really varies.  Some people do hear quite well with their aids or cochlear, and therefore don’t feel all that “impaired.”  But some people, while receiving some benefit from their aids or CI, still don’t hear very well, and might still struggle with background noise and talking on the phone and whatnot.  So if you see a person with hearing aids or a cochlear implant, don’t assume that they can hear and understand everything, because they might not be able to.

It's official! I'm on Facebook!

After some work and a LOT of technological temper tantrums (I dare you to say that 3 times out loud), My Sacred Pathway finally has a Facebook page!  

I'll be back with more posts soon, but in the meantime, click here to check out the Facebook page! :)