MUMBAI: Fox Home Entertainment and MGM Home Entertainment chose Helen Hoffner, Ed.D., a professor at Holy Family University in Philadelphia, to serve as their expert on closed captioning for literacy as the studios launch a new line of educational family films.

The new educational DVDs, called Follow Along DVD, will feature colorful karaoke-like captions to encourage viewers to read while watching.

On 10 July Fox/MGM Home Entertainment launched 11 feature-length family films with the new captions including titles such as Ice Age, Robots, Anastasia and Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Kids.

The Follow Along DVD films are available in US stores in English and Spanish at a retail price of $14.98.

Research shows that captioning not only benefits the hearing impaired but also viewers who are learning to read and those who are learning English. Hoffner has researched and written about these benefits.