Organizations that transcribe pre-recorded/live television programs and films for viewers who are deaf or have hearing impairments or are learning to read. The closed captioning typically identifies the program’s speakers and includes spoken dialogue, music, laughter and sound effects. The captions are hidden as data within the television signal and must be decoded by either a set-top decoder or caption-ready television set in order to be viewed.

Programs that utilize CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) reporters to transcribe spoken words into text, word-for-word. The CART reporter is a trained court reporter who uses a shorthand machine or voice recognition software, a computer and realtime captioning software to type and simultaneously translate spoken language into text on the computer screen. The service enables people who are deaf or have hearing impairments but do not utilize sign language as their mode of communication to access material that is being presented verbally via text and permits people without intelligible speech to participate by typing their remarks or questions for the CART reporter to voice. Bilingual realtime translations may also be available.

Programs that offer the services of bilingual individuals who have reading and writing proficiency in the second language to transfer documents written in the second language into English or vice versa or to explain the meaning of documents written in English to people whose reading proficiency in English is inadequate, using that person's native language.

Organizations, as opposed to individuals, that are the recipients of services, donated materials, funding or other resources.

A disruption in the normal hearing process that may occur in the outer, middle, or inner ear, which prevents sound waves from being converted to electrical signals and nerve impulses from being transmitted to the brain to be interpreted. Included are conductive hearing loss that results from abnormalities of the external ear and/or the ossicles of the middle ear; sensorineural hearing loss that results from malfunction of inner ear structures (i.e., cochlea); and central auditory dysfunction that results from damage or dysfunction at the level of the eighth cranial nerve, auditory brain stem, or cerebral cortex. Hearing loss may be present at birth (congenital) or become evident later in life (acquired); and may or may not preclude the normal development of language. The severity of hearing loss is measured in decibles (dB). The threshold or 0 dB mark for each frequency refers to the level at which typical young adults perceive a tone burst 50% of the time. Hearing is considered normal if an individual's thresholds are within 15 dB of normal thresholds. Severity of hearing loss is graded as mild (26-40 dB), moderate (41-55 dB), moderately severe (56-70 dB), severe (71-90 dB) and profound (90 dB).

Individuals whose first language is other than English and who may need to learn or perfect English language skills to successfully compete in the job market and participate fully in other aspects of community life.