Netflix has done it again. Almost a year ago, I reported that Netflix released the Netflix Player by Roku - which streams movies over the Internet onto the TV - but it didn't have captions or subtitles.

Unfortunately, nothing has changed. At its Annual Shareholder Meeting, held May 28, Netflix CEO and Founder Reed Hastings answered shareholders' questions. Matthew Rafat, a shareholder at the meeting, mentioned Netflix's failure to add captions and subtitles to its online streaming videos. As he writes on his blog, GotShares?, "Netflix's 'instant play' option doesn't include captions, making its online video option unusable for many users. As a result of not offering captions, Netflix is alienating its hearing impaired, deaf, and senior citizen customers."

At the meeting, Rafat asked what Netflix was doing to make its website and online video accessible to everyone. As Rafat says on his blog, "[Hastings] said as time progresses, captioning technology will become more widespread, and Netflix would then incorporate it into its own technology." He also said that, "Customers can continue to receive DVDs through the mail, and most DVDs contained captions." Hastings added that other on-demand Internet sites didn't offer captions and mentioned Hulu.com as one of them.

Some competitors (we're looking at you, Blockbuster!) don't offer captioning, but as Rafat and many people know, Hulu has had captions from the beginning. In fact, the majority of videos on the site are captioned. Rafat informed Hastings that he was wrong about Hulu, and asked if he was correct in understanding that Netflix doesn't plan on making its online videos accessible to the disabled. Hastings essentially agreed that adding captions wasn't an active agenda item.

This simple yet inflammatory statement by Hastings has caused quite a furor. A Facebook group has been created called "Netflix Watch-Instantly Needs Closed Captions!" and the last time I checked, it had 777 members. One member is Jamie Berke, a well-known advocate in captioning circles, who shared an email exchange with Hulu regarding their captioning. In its response, Hulu said, "Captions are a priority for us, and we'll continue to push to make them more of a standard for online video." In her Facebook post, Berke wrote, "Note the difference - Hulu says it is a priority for them, while Netflix says it is not even on its agenda."

Berke cites the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology's (COAT) attempts to get the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act for People With Disabilities passed as an opportunity to require online video captioning. She points those who want to get involved to COAT's petition.

The thing is that Netflix uses Microsoft's Silverlight to stream its movies. This technology can and has been programmed to show closed captioning. Netflix has the capability but clearly rushed its product to market without thinking about its deaf/HOH audience. Sound familiar?

Janice Schacter, Chair of the Hearing Access Program, and a member of the aforementioned Facebook group, actually contacted Hastings through Facebook. Christie Gray, the Executive Communications Correspondent, called her back and told her they were working on it. But that they knew they had to introduce it after the fact since they were in a rush to get the product to market. "People who are deaf/HOH should not be an afterthought," says Schacter. "Just like products that are unsafe cannot be introduced to the market nor should products that are inaccessible."

Gray told Schacter that the streaming video is a free service, so she wasn't paying any additional charges for it. "While they may not feel that I am paying for it," retorts Schacter, who has a hard of hearing daughter, "I feel that I am and find this unacceptable."

As Rafat writes, Hastings is making a poor business decision by not maximizing his site's accessibility. "By not even trying to make online video accessible to the disabled, Netflix is losing goodwill and a large potential customer base," Rafat writes. "Providing captions for online content may be one low-cost method of offering value to content providers," he also writes, suggesting that people in English-friendly countries like India could do the work for less money. This is definitely going to harm Netflix's image. The irony is that Microsoft has a good reputation when it comes to being a disability friendly company.

There's no time frame for when Gray expected the captions but they're supposedly working on it. One of the Facebook group members called Netflix and was told that Netflix would add captioning for the Roku in the 'near future.' "Considering that Netflix had been telling people for two years that they were 'working on it,' I'm skeptical of what the 'near future' means," says Berke.

I am too. Netflix and Hastings have obviously learned nothing from a year ago. They can say anything they want, but the real test is: how fast can they deliver it, how many captioned titles will be available, and will it be a good implementation?

© Copyrighted material, used by permission. This article can not be copied, reproduced, or redistributed without the express written consent of the author. Author's views not necessarily those of i711.com.

View Comments  |  Add Comment  |   Email this Article