LIBERTY Hearing & Health

Captioning for Sporting Events

Last night, my son finished his baseball game just in time before the clouds rolled in, but more importantly, before the start of game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals.  He is an avid hockey player and we are a hockey family so to have the season extended well into June is a huge treat!

We decided to stay close to home and find a place to watch the first period of the game while we ate dinner.  Most of the bars would have ample viewing space to watch the game but since my son is 8, we decided to go where we knew the TV's would be good and the game would be on - one of our local McDonald's.

We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves so we had a great spot to watch the start of the game.  Because it's a restaurant and it can get noisy, the TV had it's captioning system turned on.

Hockey is probably the fastest sport there is, besides NASCAR, and to follow the puck is a challenge for me on any given night.  I remember a few years ago they installed a light of some sort in the puck so the viewers could follow it better on TV (epic fail)!  I also enjoy hearing all of the commentary since my knowledge of the sport isn't as good as my son's :)!  The announcers get so excited when there is a rush of activity in front of the net that it keeps me on the edge of my seat!

So I thought I would try to read the captions while following the game to see what the announcers were saying.  As I started to read why Hossa was not in the lineup, I found that I missed a great play by the Blackhawks so I was frustrated.  It was an unbelievable challenge to try and read the captions and still watch this high energy, fast paced game.

When we got home, I quickly turned on the TV to the sounds and sights of the game.  It made me stop and think about having to read captions while watching show/sporting events permanently as those who are deaf or hard of hearing do.  Hats off to those of you who do this effortlessly, who don't think anything of it and who, most importantly never complain -  like I just did.