Democracy Dies in Darkness

More cities are requiring captions on public TVs. Here’s why that matters.

5 min
Soccer fans watch the 2009 World Cup at a bar in Boston, where most businesses are now required to activate closed captioning on their public-facing televisions.
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Boston has become the latest city to require many businesses to activate closed captioning on all their televisions in public spaces, making communication more accessible to people with hearing loss, one of the most common physical impairments in the United States.