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As a person who has trouble hearing, as well as lives with my grandfather who is hard of hearing, I have always enjoyed subtitles in my media. DVDs with subtitles are easier to watch, and you hear a lot more of the whispered and hushed conversation. I look up the lyrics to the music I listen to.
One of the main reasons that my grandfather isn't on the internet much is because he can't understand the sound in the videos he watches. My grandfather is an avid woodworker, stained glass artist, and hobbiest of all sorts and regularly tries to find how-to videos on difficult subjects.
The problem is that most homemade vidios, like on youtube, and other media sharing sites is that they are often filmed with the computors own microphone. The computers factory microphone and/or speaker system isn't usually professional quality, because the average user isn't a professional webmaster.
A good deal of computers, expecally for the elderly and hearing impaired are older modles anyway, sold at a time when the majority of computers didn't come with webcams. Another point for having closed captioning and subtitles is the economic boost. The multimedia provider could either hire workers, or pay the website on which they are hosted to transcribe their work for a small fee.
Poor sound quality, hearing difficulty's, old equipment, and money making opportunities are some of the main reasons that using subtitles on media sharing websites could be a winning business!
There are many other perks I could bring up, such as watching videos in the library, where it's quiet, or the bus, where it's loud. Learning a new language, learning how to read, just about any use that a movie with subtitles available can be put to can be transcribed to the internet.
