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Netflix Lets Down Deaf People Again

Screenshot of a laptop with browser showing Netflix website.

Many know that National Association of the Deaf (NAD) sued Netflix in 2011 for not captioning their streaming videos. Even after starting to caption more online videos after this, Netflix continues to let down deaf and hard of hearing people that make up over 50 million in USA.

Earlier this year NAD had to contact Netflix lawyers again after numerous complaints “from Queer Eyeviewers that the platform’s captioning of the show was omitting swear words that were not bleeped out in the audio track and deleting whole sentences.”

As I explained in my article and video (What a [bleep] – How to Caption Expletives?), all aural information plus non-speech elements need to be fully accessible via text – including profanity that is heard loud and clear.

Now Netflix is making deaf and hard of hearing viewers and others who rely on captions upset again – this time for captioning issues in the She-Ra. Many reported that captions were either not accurate or missing in the movie. Some examples from tweets:

There are many more examples like this to state how bad captions are on Netflix, but you get the idea. As you noticed, it’s not only deaf and hard of hearing people who are having problems with this, but many others, too, who need captions for various reasons.

DC Deaf Moviegoers suggested everyone to file a complaint to Netflix: “Please report this! You can go to https://www.netflix.com/viewingactivity and click “Report a problem” and pick “Problems with captions or subtitles” and specify the issues (especially with time stamps).”

Netflix needs to get their act together. The organization cannot keep letting down millions of people who rely on captions by offering substandard quality. It’s 2018 and there are many options to make high quality same language captions that improve viewing experience for everyone and even increase profits for businesses.

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