There’s an important petition that I’m encouraging everybody to sign. Here’s the information from the email I received from a friend:
There’s been a lot of blowback since Netflix announced its rate hike this week. But far fewer people are talking about the fact that Netflix regularly discriminates against its deaf and hard of hearing customers by denying them access to 70% of Netflix’s streaming videos.
That’s because only 30% of Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” content has captions or subtitles. Additionally, there’s no way to search among the limited options for a specific title or even a genre, just one long list of titles. Which means that if you’re a deaf or hard of hearing Netflix subscriber who wants to watch, say, a comedy, you could spend most of your night clicking Next… Next… Next…
Sebastian St. Troy lost most of his hearing last December due to an infection. Sebastian is a movie buff, and losing his hearing opened his eyes to the vital importance of closed captions to the deaf and hard of hearing community. Sebastian told us, “I’m an avid Netflix subscriber. I learned that Netflix didn’t provide enough streaming content with captions, so I was challenged as to what I could watch.”
That’s why Sebastian started a petition on Change.org asking Netflix to make all of its content accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing.
Sebastian has been pursuing this campaign for months, but Netflix has dragged its feet on responding, despite legal action: The National Association of the Deaf is suing Netflix for not fully complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Deaf and hard of hearing Netflix subscribers shouldn’t have to wait for a prolonged legal battle to play out before enjoying equal access to streaming videos — particularly since Netflix has already put many video stores out of business. Netflix can and should start taking good faith steps (like making captioned content searchable) today.
Please sign the petition today to ask Netflix to give deaf and hard of hearing customers equal access to content:
http://www.change.org/petitions/netflix-make-films-accessible-for-the-deaf-hoh
Thanks for taking action,
– Weldon and the Change.org team
*********************************
I’m not deaf or hard of hearing, but I use captions and subtitles all the time. This is something that will be beneficial to everybody. Please take a moment to add your signature!
The Ugly Bug Ball 