Captioned films are subtitled films for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. They include brief descriptions of background sounds, such as music and sound effects, as well as dialog. Captioning is available in two types. Open captioning is sometimes available at live events where there are a lot of hard of hearing people. The captioning is visible to all, and it is integrated into the performance. Closed captioning is associated mainly with television; all televisions over 13" in diameter must now possess a closed captioning decoder. The television menu and/or the cable box menu will allow the user to set closed captioning as the default. Often, DVDs that are closed captioned require the user to enable captioning by going into the audio, or language, selection menu. It is an excellent way for new immigrants to learn to read and speak English.
Multnomah County Library selects video programming for a wide audience. In an effort to ensure access, it tries to purchase closed-captioned editions of media when available.