11. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a computer, perform a method of displaying a computer desktop and closed captioning content on a display device having a display area, the method comprising: displaying the computer desktop on the display device while the display area is unpartitioned; receiving a first instruction to display closed captioning content on the display device; in response to receiving the first instruction, partitioning the display area into a first portion for the closed captioning content and a second portion for the computer desktop, the second portion being reduced in size with respect to the unpartitioned display area to make room in the display area for the first portion for the closed captioning content; capturing closed captioning content from a user application executing on a computer system associated with the display device and/or an operating system of the computer system, wherein the closed captioning content comprises text and is selected from the group consisting of title information for a currently active window displayed on the computer desktop, information about controls in a window displayed on the computer desktop, text typed in a document, help information for a computer desktop or user application element, alert information provided by the user application and/or the operating system, and information redirected for output by a speech synthesizer; writing at least some of the closed captioning content to a first buffer mapped to the first portion of the display area; writing at least a portion of the computer desktop to a second buffer mapped to the second portion of the display area and not to the first portion of the display area; displaying the at least some of the closed captioning content from the first buffer on the first portion of the display area, wherein the at least some of the closed captioning content displayed on the first portion of the display area is selected to facilitate a user interaction with the user application and/or the computer desktop; analyzing a context of the at least some of the text in the closed captioning content, wherein the context indicates an application type associated with the at least some of the text; replacing the at least some of the text with at least one user-defined symbol based, at least in part, on the context before displaying the closed captioning content on the first portion of the display area, wherein a same word or phrase in the closed captioning content is replaced with different user-defined symbols in association with different application types; displaying the at least a portion of the computer desktop from the second buffer on the second portion of the display area; and providing an ability to scroll the at least a portion of the computer desktop within the second portion of the display area, without causing movement of the at least some of the closed captioning content in the first portion of the display area, and without causing movement of the first portion of the display area.
14. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the method further comprises: receiving a second instruction to modify at least one characteristic of the closed captioning content; and in response to receiving the second instruction, automatically increasing a size of the first portion of the display area and reducing a size of the second portion of the display area.