Try this. Sit in a meeting with more than 3 people around a table. Put your fingers in your ears but not so far as to hurt your eardrums. Now you will appreciate why captions in face-to-face meetings are so important to many people.
Captions play a crucial role in fostering inclusivity, accessibility, and effective communication in face-to-face meetings, benefiting individuals with hearing impairments and enhancing overall participation for all attendees.
People who need captions are legally entitled to expect them to be provided. And the same goes for Hearing Loops and interpreters. If they are not provided when you ask for them, your human rights have been ignored and that’s according to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, of which Australia is a signatory.
Read more here.