11/15/91 17:29 WICHITA
DRAFT 
November 14, 1991 
(Senator)
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510 
(End of Letterhead)

Dear Senator: 

We are pleased to announce the Senate will begin realtime closed captioning of its proceedings on Monday, November 18. Realtime closed captioning is the electronic subtitling of the audio portion of the TV broadcast of Chamber proceedings. Those with hearing impairments will be able to read Senators' remarks aa they are speaking. 

Senate Resolution 13, 10lst Congress, 1st Session, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (P.L. 101-336) require the Senate to make its proceedings available to the hearing impaired by January, 1992. The Secretary of the Senate's Office of Captioning Services captions the Senate from a specially-designed control room in the basement of the Capitol Building. Senators interested in visiting the control room should call the Secretary or simply stop by ST-54. 

Both channel 8 and C-SPAN II will carry the captions, but a decoder is required to make the captions visible on your TV set. Decoders can be obtained from the Sergeant at Arms. 

While captioning technology was developed to help the deaf, others are benefitting. Decoders are being purchased by the elderly with marginal hearing loss who regularly use them to enhance their TV viewing. Those for whom English is a second language use captions as a learning aid.

I know you will join me in welcoming our new viewers.

Sincerely,
Bob Dole 
George J. Mitchell 

Enclosure