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Wouldn’t say it’s awful. It probably gets 90% right. But sometimes the 10% ends up either being comical, or absolutely misleading. Patsy Baloney is a great example of the former.

And the success rate drops dramatically when it is captioning someone with an accent.

When it isn’t being used in a crucial situation (such as mere entertainment, like some sporting event), it’s adequate. Education IS a crucial situation, though.

On the flip side, many times a sign language interpreter can’t keep up with the verbal pace of the person speaking. And it’s even worse when the speaker has an accent. It’s refreshing to see a speaker who is attuned to the fact that he has an interpreter off to the side “speaking” his/her hands off. He will stop and let the interpreter catch up. And that’s often crucial when the subject matter is complex. Point is, the interpreter isn’t the be-all-and-end-all for the deaf person in an educational environment.