Sunday, April 18, 2010

Another step on the internet accessibility for the hearing impaired...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ytech_gadg/20100416/tc_ytech_gadg/ytech_gadg_tc1650

So some Netflix shows and movies now have subtitles/close-captions for the hearing impaired.

I guess I should cheer for this - and part of me is, because it's a step in the right direction.

But I'm also very wary of how far they're going to be willing to take this. Are they going to caption a few titles and hope that relieves the pressure and then not do anything more for the next five years? Because to some extent, that's what's happened with Hulu and Youtube. Sure they have some captions... but really not nearly enough. For everything I can watch with captions, there are so many more things without captions - and as someone with a severe hearing impairment, that's extremely frustrating.

I know they can't do everything at once - that's a LOT of work. But I can't break out the pom-poms until they demonstrate that they are dedicated to captioning EVERYTHING, and in a timely manner.

However, kudos for finally stepping up to the plate and getting some stuff out there, Netflix. It's an incentive for me to plan to get a subscription again, and if you DO keep captioning things, then yes, I will indeed be back.

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