COAT advocates for accessibility and usability of technology for people with disabilities. Enacting the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (21st CVAA) was a huge step forward and we are working to implement this new law. COAT’s overall aim is to ensure accessibility, usability, and affordability of all broadband, wireless, and Internet technologies for people with disabilities.
COAT Writes Netflix Video Distributor Asking for Accessibility & Usability
On June 11, 2009 COAT sent a letter to Netflix asking them to make its "Watch Instantly" movies and other videos and its website accessible to and usable by people with hearing loss and people with vision disabilities. Consumers are irate about lack of accessibility including some Netflix shareholders. COAT asked for a designated disability Point of Contact, a meeting with Netflix executives to discuss concerns, and a written committment from the company on what steps it is taking to incorporate accessibility and usability in all of its services. For a copy of COAT's letter, write COAT. To support this effort, make a donation today to COAT!
Closed Caption button on remote.
Apparently Netflix has
Apparently Netflix has committed to adding subtitles to its video streaming "Watch Instantly" video library next year.Customers will be able to enable captions on digital titles on devices that use Microsoft's Silverlight components sometime in 2010, says Netflix. Comment into the News article on this story! Or add a Comment here!
Here is an interesting blog
Here is an interesting blog post (dated 6/12) from Neil Hunt, Chief Products Offier at Netflix
http://blog.netflix.com/2009/06/closed-captions-and-subtitles.html
The NAD sent a letter to
The NAD sent a letter to Netflix (Reed Hastings) in November 2008, advocating for their online streaming "video on demand" service to be made available with captions -- at a minimum, to enable the delivery and display of already-captioned movies and television shows. No response. The NAD supports COAT's letter.
maybe some other
maybe some other organizations should send letters also. If you are someone who needs the COAT letter as a template, please contact me at info@coataccess.org THANKS!
The CEO of NetFlix responded
The CEO of NetFlix responded in a blog on June 12th to address the topic of NetFlix and captioning:
http://blog.netflix.com/2009/06/closed-captions-and-subtitles.html
I'm not sure he's looked at all the alternatives available; some of the comments indicate NetFlix has options like using .SRT files.
thanks for adding this new
thanks for adding this new piece to this story, Dana.
it's good to keep track of what they are saying in the blogs!
I understand that somebody
I understand that somebody with an auditory disability is missing out on the full experience of the Watch Instantly feature of the Netflix service. Those of us who are completely blind, but able to hear, are essentially shut out of using the service entirely. Even though I can enjoy most of the programs by merely listening to them, there is no way for me to control the player because the only way to interact with the player is to use a mouse, and screen reading programs do not even recognize where one would click on the screen to adjust things like volume, movie position, let alone pausing and playing the programs or skipping to the next episode in a television series. I agree that captions should be available, but I don't know if the lack of accessibility of the player is Microsoft's or Netflix's fault. Who do I talk to so I can use the service I am paying for?
H.R. 3101 includes
H.R. 3101 includes provisions to make video programming user interfaces accessible for people who are blind or who have low vision. In your example, you may want to contact Netlfix to advocate for screen readable user interface controls for their services.