Honestly, I think it is in Netflix’s best interest to include captioning. I watch frequently at night with the volume all the way down due to sudden loud bursts – often leaving over half the videos unintelligible. Captions would help even me, someone with bad but not limited hearing.

I also think many sites could do more to encourage accessibility. However, realize there is consequences to legislation – namely, the cost of accessibility to sites (blind, deaf, those with limited mobility, those with epilepsy, and so on) will mean many companies will choose to not enter the market at all.

Do you really think 100% coverage of all people with some need outside the norm should be legally required? After all, accounting for 100% of all possible contingencies is impossible and thus all companies would have to have big bankrolls to cover potential lawsuits. In other words, would you be willing to accept this legislation if suddenly it cost you $100/month to access Netflix Watch Instantly, and $100/month to access Fox.com online, and $100/month to access CNN.com, and $1000/month to access Hulu, and so forth.

It is not a solution for you, but what do I do when I can’t really hear the TV due to it being late at night? I watch subtitled foreign movies… or I watch “eye candy” action films where knowing the dialog really adds little.

I’m sorry that you feel left out of Netflix. Perhaps you should instead target film industry first. Netflix redistributes their products, and they are the ones not subtitling all films. Which raises the question, do you expect movie theaters to have closed captioning available to you? How about a music CD, do you expect that all CDs and CD players have a visual display of the sheet music and lyrics when you can’t hear it? Do you advocate all silent films be re-edited to include sound tracks for the blind?

Oh, and my wife has a sever peanut allergy (ie, potentially lethal) – do you support a nationwide ban on all peanut products or products manufactured in a plant that processes peanuts so she can go safely anywhere? (Including a Texas Roadhouse or other restaurant that does the whole “free peanuts” thing?)

How far do we go to legislate accommodating outside 2 standard deviations of our potential market? Cars for quadriplegic? Odor stickers on meat for those who have lost their sense of taste and smell? Smart flooring to reduce foot injuries to diabetics? All wheat product manufacturers required to make and market non-wheat products wherever their regular products are so as not to inconvenience those with gluten allergies? No shrimp in restaurants to ensure no cross-contamination for those with allergies?

So, does it upset you that Netflix does not comply with full web accessibility standards for all potential contingencies – or they are not accommodating your specific group and the rest be damned (because they are not your group, or they are “too small” of a group)?

Wow!! you showed me a circle of words ” Streaming” I could not believe!
I mailed you and it will be arriving your house tomorrow or Thursday. I read this your blog. I finally understood better. Netflix know better how many deaf community lives on Earth. The Deaf baby booms are now over a millions since 1940′s.

You have lot of empowered about A.D.A to against Netflix!

MAT

Why we waste our time with the Netflix?

I unsubscribe the service pretty long time ago.

RLM

Go ahead with the full-scale public campaign to put the Netflix in the hall of shame and make it pay dearly for snubbing the deaf and HOH community.

White Ghost was absolutely right why we don’t have any legal teeth with the online video streamings, etc.

White Ghost,

I did write the blog entry pretty long time ago about what we should do about the 3-D film at theatre if we, deaf people could not possibly enjoy the 3-D films.

Y had good question about the big Q’s about the captioning of 3-D television programs and movies.

The 3-D TV will come real sooner than we anticipate.

RLM

The only way to really solve this problem is to go to legislative level. This means writing or e-mailing your state Representatives right now because HR 3101 is the internet captioning access bill that ADA doesn’t cover and will be on the House floor soon. The passage of HR 3101 will force every internet source to provide captioning of video content on the internet. That includes Netflix. I urge all you readers to do so.

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