It depends, according to Greg Downey, a professor of communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who wrote the book "Closed Captioning: Subtitling, Stenography, and the Digital Convergence of Text with Television."

He wrote in an e-mail that "sometimes the captioning is carefully composed before airtime like movie subtitles are (such as on a prime-time television series), sometimes it is created live (mistakes and all) by 'remote stenocaptioners' (such as with many news programs in large markets) and sometimes it is created by a direct feed from a TelePrompTer (such as with many local news programs in smaller markets)."

You can imagine fingers flying to keep pace with Dick Vitale's running commentary on a college hoops telecast. Besides dialogue, captioners also describe funky noises so the hearing-impaired viewers can keep the words in context.

The National Captioning Institute "continuously assesses each real-time captioner's work so that accuracy rates of 98 percent or better can be maintained," according to its Web site. For more information, visit the site at http://www.ncicap.org.

Why don't we get "I Voted" stickers in Racine?

What, that glow on your face from exercising your civic duty isn't a clear enough giveaway?

No worries; conspicuous democracy is alive and well. In part to hold down costs, the stickers are only given out for bigger elections, Assistant City Clerk Donna Deuster said.

Poll workers handed out many in the November presidential election but none in the spring primary. Considering the 4 percent countywide turnout last month, that would have been an elite sticker club.

What is the small red-brick building across from Stock Lumber in Sturtevant?

We'll have to find a better landmark, since Stock Lumber closed last fall. How about "between the railroad tracks and Highway H"?

That little building at 10101 Durand Ave. is a group home for at-risk girls between 12 and 17. Jewel Jones, an administrator for Lydia Group Home LLC, said the company has run the home there for about a dozen years and recently rebuilt on the same site.

Why are the walk lights so short on wide intersections in the city?

John Rooney disputes the question's premise. The City of Racine's assistant commissioner of public works for engineering said the timed lights are based on slower walking speeds that should leave most pedestrians enough time.

The "Walk" light is just the trigger to get them started across the intersection, he said. Even when it turns to a flashing "Don't Walk," it's no reason to panic. Rooney suggested handling that the way a driver deals with a yellow light.

For those who want more explicit warnings on when to sprint for the curb, Rooney said the next round of construction on Sixth Street will bring lights that actually count down the number of seconds you've got left to cross. Ten … nine …

Mike Moore compiles the Glad You Asked column, which answers selected questions of local interest. Call us at (262) 631-1758 or e-mail:

ask@journaltimes.com