A closed-captioned radio would certainly sound good to millions of hearing-impaired people, and could become one the market by the end of the year, according to BBC. The text would be delivered to a screen on the receiver, requiring the user to subscribe to a closed-captioning service.

Closed captioning would not only make daily enjoyment of the radio possible for people with hearing impairment, but text radio might also prove to be a life saver in emergencies, such as natural disasters when a radio often becomes the only source of news and information for those affected.

The device is still in the development stage, but a spokesman for Harris Broadcast, a party to the project, told the Washington Times newspaper that a radio with closed captioning capability may be in production by the end of 2008. The other partners in the development project include Towson University near Baltimore, Maryland, USA, and the American National Public Radio network, NPR.

SOURCE: This item was modified from the following post on www.hear-it.org.