Newstand Price: $2.50www.signews.org

Jennifer Dans-WilleySIGNews Editor-in-Chief

On July 16, the National As-sociation of the Deaf (NAD), the nation’s premier civil rights organization of deaf and hard of hearing individuals, an-nounced the filing of a major federal lawsuit against Netf lix in the U.S. District Court, Dis-trict of Massachusetts, Western Division in Springfield, Ma., the organization’s Web site, www.nad.org announced. The lawsuit charges the DVD and streaming videos giant, claim-ing that they have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to provide closed captioning for most of its “Watching Instantly” mov-ies and television streamed on the Internet.

Flashback to July 2009 issue of SIGNews

SIGNews reported in its July 2009 issue’s “Deaf Up-

set at Netf lix for not Caption-ing Instant Videos,” written by Erick Posner, that two years prior to the article, that Netf-lix had unveiled a new online movie streaming to the cus-tomer’s TV or computer at no charge to members and that many deaf people were thrilled to have this capability, reason-ing that most DVDs they rent-ed often has had subtitles or closed captioning. To learn that the online streaming wouldn’t have the same capabilities, the deaf and hard of hearing community was in for a huge disappointment. With an in-terview with Steve Swasey, the vice president of Corporate Communications for Netf lix, Swasey defended the Chief Ex-ecutive Officer Reed Hastings’ comments regarding the cap-tions’ availability and the dif-ficulties and the costs of mak-ing the technology to have streamed videos captioned even regardless of the $22.4

million first quarter profit they had made in 2009.

That comment sent bloggers all over the nation on a blog rampage and encouraged the community to make the switch over to another DVD mailing company, Blockbuster and ac-knowledged that Netf lix had no legal accountability to caption or subtitle the streaming vid-eos online. Swasey was quot-ed, “There are many in-

stances where we are not able to provide everything to ev-erybody all the time and this is one of those circumstanc-es. It is nothing but a resource, time and tech issue and I real-

ly think we are hearing much more of emotion around this than the facts would necessi-tate,” upon hearing about the uproar of the signing commu-nity.

What is “Watching Instantly”?

Netf lix elaborates on their product, the largest and the solo provider of “streaming” entertainment, by listing all the answers under its frequent asked questions section on their website.

“You can watch instantly via your Xbox 360, PS3, Wii or any other device that streams instantly from Netf lix…(in-structions on how to stream videos for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii are mentioned).You can also watch instantly via some In-ternet connected Blu-ray players as well as some In-ternet connected HDTVs. You also watch instantly via your TiVo and Roku.” When asked if one could watch in-

stantly on iPad or iPhone, they responded, “Yes, just down-load the FREE Netf lix applica-tion from the Apple App store and log into your Netf lix ac-count.” Anyone can even watch instantly online on their PC or Mac by just “clicking” play but-

Scale Crusher is featured on page 18.

August 2011 Vol. 9, Issue 8

Newstand Price: $2.50

www.signews.org

News..........................................

............3

Sports..........................................

..........9

The CSD Beam.................................13

Business..........................................

...15

Life..........................................

.............17

Games..........................................

.......21

Humor.........................................

.......23

Opinion..........................................

....25

What’s Inside

102 N. Krohn Place, Sioux Falls, SD 57103

Address Service Requested

A Deaf Man’s Journey to Priesthood, page 17.

July 2009

Vol. 7, Issue 7

Erick Posner

SIGNews staff writer

More deaf people are joining Netflix,

a popular online DVD rental company

founded in 1997, where for a monthly fee,

a person can rent a number of DVDs. This

is a boon for the deaf community as it be-

comes convenient for them to go on line

and order rental DVDs. The DVD arrives

within two days of request via pre-paid

mail. After the viewing, the customer can

return it via pre-paid mail back to Netflix.

The cost ranges from $6.95 to $24.95 de-

pending on how many DVDs a customer

desires to keep at one time.

The thought of happy faces getting the

DVDs in the mail soon changed to a dark

cloud overlooking Netflix as the deaf com-

munity is now up in arms. Almost two

years ago, Netflix unveiled a new online

movie streaming to the customer’s TV or

computer at no charge for the members.

Many deaf people were thrilled to have

this capability, reasoning that most DVDs

they rent often have subtitled or closed

captioning. One would make sense that

the online streaming would have the same

capabilities. They were in for a huge disap-

pointment. As it turns out, Netflix did not

include the subtitling or closed captioning

capability. Many have written to Netflix

to protest. They often got canned response

from the customer care department apol-

ogizing and that they were “working on

it.” Furthermore, the customer care sug-

gested that the deaf people continue to re-

quest DVDs via mail in lieu of the stream-

ing movies.

A Surprise Response

Netflix, a publicly traded company

on the NASDAQ stock market under the

NFLX symbol, recently held a shareholder

meeting last May. In the meeting, a share-

holder by the name of Ken Yew, peppered

the Netflix chief executive officer Reed

Hastings with questions. One of the ques-

tions that Yew had posed to Hastings: why

hasn’t Netflix done enough to ensure that

their online movie streaming were subti-

tled or closed captioned?

Hastings’ response surprised Yew and

Yew decided to blog about the interac-

tion on his WillWorkForJustice blog. In

the blog, Yew wrote that Hastings had told

him that other sites do not offer captioning

and cited Hulu.com as an example. “He

said as time progresses, captioning tech-

nology will become widespread, and Net-

flix 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 cap-

tions.” Yew then told Hastings that Hulu.com

does offer captioning and asked if Net-

flix is not planning to caption the mov-

ies. “Mr. Hastings said he would check

out Hulu.com, but essentially agreed that

adding captions wasn’t an active agenda

item,” Yew wrote. Yew believed that Hast-

ings was making a “poor business decision

by not maximizing his site’s accessibility.”

Within few days, the deaf communi-

ty got a wind of the shareholder meeting

and was angry about Hastings’ attitude.

Scores of deaf people blogged about it.

Some even called for mass defection from

Netflix to Blockbuster (another DVD by

the mail company).

C.E.O. Not Insensitive

Steve Swasey, the vice president of Cor-

porate Communications for Netflix, de-

fended Hastings’ attitude and the lack of

subtitling/closed captioning in their on-

line offerings in a telephone interview with

SIGNews. Responding to Hasting’s per-

ceived attitude regarding the controversy,

Swasey denied that Hastings was insen-

Deaf Upset at Netflix for not Captioning Instant Videos

Netflix, continued on page 10

Katherine Firkins

SIGNews staff writer

Lisa Zahra, a sign language interpret-

er from Rochester, N.Y., is dedicated to raise

funding to build a school for deaf children in

Monze, a poverty-stricken village in Zambia,

Africa.

Volunteering to Teach Poverty-

Stricken Deaf Children

In 2002, Zahra began to reevaluate her life

and couldn’t help but wonder “if it was possi-

ble to make a small dent in this huge world we

live in.” She found the idea of living in Africa

Sign Language Interpreter Puts Effort to Build Deaf School in Africa

Africa, continued on page 6

News......................................................3Sports....................................................9The CSD Beam.................................13Business.............................................15

Life.......................................................17Games.................................................21Humor................................................23Opinion..............................................25

What’s Inside

102 N. Krohn Place, Sioux Falls, SD 57103Address Service Requested

Netflix Sued by Deaf Civil Rights Organizations forNot Captioning Streaming Videos

Netflix, continued on page 2

2 • August 2011• SIGNews www.signews.org

Volume 9, Number 8

E d i t o r - i n - C h i E fJennifer Dans-Willey

E d i t i n g S u p p o r tDerric Miller

L ay o u t E d i t o rDeb Kuglitsch

C o n t a C t i n f o r m a t i o n

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ton on the screen and watch it online through Internet con-nected computers.

Many videos online that are streamed to a deaf or a hard of hearing person’s devices of their choice are not subtitled or captioned.

Repeatedly Expressed Concerns

An estimated 36 million Americans are deaf or hard of hearing. The community has repeatedly expressed con-cerns through letters, petitions, blogs and social media to Net-f lix about the company’s fail-ure to provide equal access to “Watch Instantly,” the NAD Web site reported. “We have tried for years to persuade Net-f lix to do the right thing and provide equal access to all con-tent across all platforms. They chose not to serve our commu-nity on an equal basis; we must have equal access to the big-gest provider of streamed en-tertainment. As Netf lix itself acknowledges, streamed vid-eos is the future and we must not be left out,” said NAD Pres-ident Bobbie Beth Scoggins in

the same press release on the Internet.

Directing Attorney of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), Arlene Mayerson said in the press release, “There is no ex-cuse for Netf lix to fail to pro-vide captions so that deaf and hard of hearing customers have access to the same movies and TV shows as everyone else. Netf lix admits that there is no technological issue. For people who are deaf and hard of hear-ing, captions are like ramps for people who use wheelchairs.”

The Wizard of Oz Fiasco In 2009, Netf lix ignored a

request from NAD’s former Di-rector of Law and Policy, Ro-saline Crawford’s request to caption the streaming video of The Wizard of Oz which Netf-lix intended to make available for free to the general public in commemoration of the movie’s 70th anniversary. No captions were shown or no one respond-ed to Crawford until nearly a month later. Catherine Fisher, Director of Communications at Netf lix with a quote, “Netf lix frequently communicates its commitment to provide closed captioning for the TV episodes and movies you can watch in-stantly, but it was not simple for Netf lix to instantly stream the Wizard of Oz the past weekend, otherwise we would have done

it. Netf lix developers continue to work on closed captioning and we will keep deaf and hard of hearing community apprised of the progress.” Three days af-ter the letter, Fisher declined NAD’s request for a meeting, the recently filed lawsuit court record said.

Who are Involved in the Lawsuit?

The papers that were filed at the United States District Court for the District of Mas-sachusetts Western Division, the lawsuit papers stated that the NAD has teamed up with the Western Massachusetts As-sociation of the Deaf and Hear-ing Impaired along with Lee Nettles.

According to the court re-port, NAD has teamed up with Western Massachusetts Associ-ation of the Deaf and Hearing Impaired (WMAD/HI), a non-profit organization headquar-tered in Springfield, Mass., with a mission to advocate for the rights of and to serve the needs of deaf and hard of hearing in-dividuals in Western Massa-chusetts, including advocating for increased access to commu-nity life through the provision of sign language interprets and captioning.

NAD and WMAD/HI is also partnered up with Lee Nettles, a deaf individual and a member of WMAD/HI and NAD. Net-tles is the Director of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Independent Living Services at the Stavros Center for Independent Living in Springfield, Mass. A resi-dent in Westfield, Mass., with his wife, Nettles never sub-scribed to Netf lix because of its failure to provide full and equal access through closed captioning. Nettles has resort-ed to purchasing on-demand movies from other services

that are more expensive and are only available at a cost per movie basis, rather than paying a monthly fee for unlimited ac-cess.

The lawsuit filing can be found at this link: http://www.dredf.org/captioning and click on “Read the full complaint.”

Netflix, continued from page 1

Netflix Facts By Jacqueline Thomas

www.life123.com and By Wikipedia

www.wikipedia.com

1. Netflix was founded in 1997. 2. Mail-order service. 3. 100,000 titles. 4. Removed late fees in 1999. 5. Online membership required. 6. 50 distribution centers across the country. 7. Provided pre-paid postage to return rental.8. Ships approximately 2 million DVDs per day 9. Annual postage $300 million10. Accused of “throttling” (Throttling happens when members who rent fewer DVDs receive faster than members who rent frequently, i.e. DVDs can be sent from further distances, making the arrival time longer than one business day). 11. Partners are Marc Randolph, Reed Hastings and Mitch Lowe. 12. Largest online movie rental service in the world. 13. “Watching Instantly” one of Netflix’s options of watching movies. 14. Cost to stream a movie, $.06 for standard screen, $.09 for high definition. 15. Located in Los Gatos, California. 16. Incorporated in Delaware. 17. Employs 2,000 people.

Bobbie Beth Scoggins