NAD Calls Out Netflix on Captions

Sosie

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2007
Messages
3,097
Reaction score
41
NAD Calls Out Netflix on Captions

On September 9, 2009, the National Association of the Deaf requested that Netflix provide a captioned version of “The Wizard of Oz” movie that Netflix made available online, for free, for everyone on October 3, 2009. Netflix disregarded the NAD request along with thousands of letters, emails, comments, and tweets urging Netflix to caption the movie. Today, the NAD expressed its dismay at the lack of any response from Netflix and its failure to make this 70th anniversary celebration of “The Wizard of Oz” accessible to 36 million deaf and hard of hearing viewers.

Here is what the NAD said:

Monday, October 5, 2009

Catherine Fisher
Director, Communications
Netflix, Inc.
cafisher@netflix. com

Ms. Fisher –

On September 9, 2009, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) wrote to you in response to Netflix’s announcement that “The Wizard of Oz” would be freely available to everyone on October 3rd, the 70th anniversary of this classic film. We requested that Netflix enable people to choose to view a captioned version of this classic film by placing a "CC" icon on your webpage linked to the captioned version. We urged Netflix to take advantage of this unique opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to providing accessible entertainment to 36 million deaf and hard of hearing Americans. See http://www.nad.org/node/ 442. In addition to the NAD, Academy Award winning actress Marlee Matlin and many other people appealed to Netflix to caption “The Wizard of Oz.”

The process of captioning “The Wizard of Oz” is technically possible and relatively simple to achieve. The television version and the DVD version of the film have already been captioned. Captions can be programmed into the Microsoft Silverlight application that Netflix uses for its Watch Instantly feature. Captions have been included in videos, programming, and movies made available for viewing online. See, for example, Hulu - Watch your favorites. Anytime. For free..

We received no response from Netflix. Our request for a captioned version of “The Wizard of Oz” on October 3rd was not honored. Unlike the characters in “The Wizard of Oz,” Netflix looks like it is still searching for its brain, heart, and courage. We view Netflix’s lack of response and lack of captioning for “The Wizard of Oz” as a blatant statement by Netflix that 36 million deaf and hard of hearing people are second class citizens. This is the message that our community received from Netflix.

Netflix must commit to a policy and timetable to provide captions for its online movie service to ensure equal access to this service by Netflix account holders who are deaf or hard of hearing. Such a policy is a not only a good business practice, it's the right thing to do.

In addition, we ask Netflix to meet with NAD representatives, and the courtesy of a response to this invitation.

Rosaline Crawford
Director, Law and Advocacy Center
National Association of the Deaf
8630 Fenton Street, Suite 820
Silver Spring, MD 20910


Advocates need to continue to request captioning on Netflix Watch Instantly movies by sending messages to Netflix by Twitter via the Netflix twitter account at http://www.twitter. com/netflix or @netflix and Netflix (Netflixhelps) on Twitter or @netflixhelps, via the Netflix Facebook page at Netflix | Facebook, by posting comments on the Netflix blog at The Official Netflix Blog, and contacting:

Catherine Fisher
Director, Communications
Netflix, Inc.
cafisher@netflix. com
408-540-3847

Netflix Customer Service
1-866-716-0414

Source: NAD Calls Out Netflix on Captions | National Association of the Deaf

Netflix: Wizard of Oz - 70th Anniversary

Netflix - Instantly watch the Wizard of Oz for free at Netflix on Oct 3

Yahoo Tech:

Deaf association to Netflix: Why no captions during free online showing of "Oz"? : Ben Patterson : Yahoo! Tech why-no-captions-during-free-online-showing-of-oz/

HackingNetflix.om:

Hacking NetFlix : Netflix's Wizard of Oz Showing Upsets National Association of the Deaf
 
Deaf association to Netflix: Why no captions during free online showing of "Oz"?

Deaf association to Netflix: Why no captions during free online showing of "Oz"? : Ben Patterson : Yahoo! Tech

It was intended as a gift to movie lovers everywhere to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the classic film, but Netflix's free streaming presentation of "The Wizard of Oz" this past Saturday wasn't much fun for the deaf and hard of hearing, and the National Association of the Deaf is hopping mad about it.

Hacking Netflix reports that Rosaline Crawford, a representative for the NAD, fired off an angry letter to Netflix after Saturday's free showing of "Oz," which was streamed over the Web without closed captioning.

Crawford accused Netflix of ignoring an earlier request to provide closed captioning for the movie, and called for "a policy and timeline to provide captions" for its "Watch Instantly" streaming service.

"Unlike the characters in 'The Wizard of Oz,' Netflix looks like it is still searching for its brain, heart, and courage," Crawford wrote, adding that the missing captions during Saturday's showing of the film is "a blatant statement by Netflix that 36 million deaf and hard of hearing people are second-class citizens."

The lack of closed captioning on its streaming movie and TV service is a sore point for Netflix, which explained in a blog post back in June that laying in subtitles for each of its 17,000-odd online titles isn't as easy as it looks, and could be "about a year away."

"Encoding a separate stream for each titles is not an option," wrote Netflix exec Neil Hunt in the blog post. "It takes us about 500 processor-months to make one encode through the entire library, and for this we would have to re-encode four different formats. Duplicating the encoded streams is prohibitive in space too."

Instead, Hunt wrote, Netflix "is working on optionally delivering the SAMI file (Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange), or similar, to the client, and having it render the text and then overlay it on the video at playback time," but "the tools for rendering SAMI files in Silverlight, or in CE devices" like the Netflix-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players "are weak or non-existent, and there is some technology development required."

But that explanation isn't good enough for Crawford, who points out that other streaming video sites, like Hulu and YouTube, already offer closed captioning—and she's right. (The videos on Hulu and YouTube, it should be noted, are powered by Adobe's Flash technology, while Netflix uses Microsoft's Silverlight system.)

So, what's the deal? Any streaming video experts out there care to enlighten us on why Hulu can handle closed captioning but Netflix can't (or can't yet)?

Update: Just got a statement from Netflix VP Steve Swasey: "Netflix developers are working on captioning for 2010 but the situation is exactly as Neil Hunt explained in the blog. Unfortunately, there's no fast and easy fix."
 
Netflix :(




:ty: A very good post, and extremely well written. Netflix has plenty of problems with the deaf community and I wish these problems solved. Last week, out of 4 movies I received only one was CC and that one was subititled.

They say to "search" for which ones are CC/Subtitled, but this endeavor takes up a great deal of time and often their promises of CC (etc.) are not followed through with.

Speaking for myself, I am an elderly widow living alone and subscribe to Netflix only because it gives me the convenience of watching movies in my own home, without having to drive miles and miles to a theatre that offers (occasional) CC.

Netflix needs to be aware of the fact the deaf community's money is the same as anyone elses's If they have a problem with this fact, then lower their rates for hearing impaired. WE only benefit from a small part of uncaptioned movies. But we pay the same price as hearing folks. Netflix needs to understand that we, as a community can only utilize what we can SEE, everything is visual to us -- and to charge us the same as anyone else and not providing CC half of the time, they are seriously damaging their own good name.

Let's all get busy and boycott if we must!
 
I didn't realize they use Silverlight. They should TOTALLY be able to embed captions.
 
Mod note:

Threads has been merged.
 
Back
Top