[nabs-l] netflixsays "no" to audio description

Mon Jul 15 23:27:13 UTC 2013

That's a very interesting argument in favor of captioning for the deaf. I wonder why we couldn't use it for descriptions  for the blind?

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 15, 2013, at 2:20 PM, Mary Fernandez <trillian551 at gmail.com> wrote:

> All,
> First and foremost, Dan is of course right, litigation is the very
> last options which the NFB, as well as most sensible people, resort
> to. Legal battles are slow, cumbersome, and take up a lot of
> resources, both human and economical. It is true that the NFB has won
> some essential battles in the courtroom, but I can assure you that
> those battles have come after we have tried talking, advocating,
> negotiation, protesting with no tangible results. And those cases that
> do go to court, are cases based on rights that are available to
> everyone else, and which are so ubiquitous, that it is unreasonable to
> just sit back and accept that thats the way the world works for blind
> people. That we will be excluded from programs, services and
> activities which the sighted world can enjoy, and that there's nothing
> we can do about it. It is every American's right to resort to the
> justice system when their civil rights are being violated.
> Joshua, as far as the ADA and Netflicks...  The ADA covers places,
> programs and services of public accommodations. So for instance, any
> member of the public can go to a restaurant, thus, a restaurant must
> be physically accessible to disabled Americans. The issue of web
> accessibility is complex and is a very young work in public. Thus far,
> most successful web accessibility and technology lawsuits, have been
> successful on the premisce that this web service has a physical
> equivalent. A good example ofthis are websites for retail stores. If
> you can walk into Target and buy a shirt, you should be able to go
> online and buy a shirt. Netflix is a private enterprise, and there
> really isn't a physical equivalent to a movie which offers additional
> accessibility. There was a Netflix caption lawsuit which was
> successful because we had some brilliant lawyers argue, that ones home
> is a place of public accommodation, and that Netflix is so ubiquitous
> in every home, that one should be able to fully access that service.
> That's the very watered down version of the argument. So the short
> answer is that no, DOJ has not issued any kind of mandate which says
> that movies must have descriptive audio. The only setting for which
> that would be an argument which falls under ADA is in an educational
> setting, where the visual is a mandatory part of the curriculum.
> Thanks.
> Mary
> 
> On 7/15/13, Melissa Hambleton <nightfury19 at verizon.net> wrote:
>> My boyfriend, who is 33 years old (same as me) and he is sighted, has said
>> time and time again how it would be nice that Netflix would have description
>> 
>> on their movies. When we watch DVDs my boyfriend always looks for the
>> description feature and he even appreciates it sometimes because every now
>> and again, the narrator will say something that my boyfriend didn't notice
>> on the TV screen.
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Dan Burke" <dburke at cocenter.org>
>> To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Monday, July 15, 2013 2:30 PM
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] netflixsays "no" to audio description
>> 
>> 
>>> Greetings,
>>> 
>>> I would concur with Steve's comments adding that in every case where the
>>> NFB
>>> has filed suit, it has thoroughly exhausted all the advocacy avenues
>>> available.  Thus, there are many things that move successfully ahead with
>>> strong advocacy and never get to the stage of a lawsuit. You can see some
>>> 
>>> of
>>> the positive results with companies on this year's convention agenda,
>>> such
>>> as Desire 2 Learn; and those in other presentations such as Pearson
>>> Online.
>>> 
>>> Dan
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Steve
>>> Jacobson
>>> Sent: Monday, July 15, 2013 12:01 PM
>>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] netflixsays "no" to audio description
>>> 
>>> Valerie,
>>> 
>>> One has to be careful not to attribute every message on an NFB list to
>>> necessarily be the policy or even the thinking of the NFB.
>>> For one thing, I'm not at all certain that there is a law under which to
>>> sue
>>> in this case.  Also, our treasury isn't exactly
>>> bottomless so we have to prioritize
>>> where to spend money and what the liklihood is of getting a positive
>>> result.
>>> We are really pretty careful regarding the legal
>>> action we undertake.  There are times when legal action is the only
>>> available course of action, but there has to be a pretty clear
>>> law or precedence upon which to base such action.
>>> 
>>> Best regards,
>>> 
>>> Steve Jacobson
>>> 
>>> On Mon, 15 Jul 2013 10:53:16 -0600, Valerie Gibson wrote:
>>> 
>>>> I think one of the problems with the NFB is our reputation for being "sue
>>> happy".
>>>> And with the last email, I see where we get that rep, seeing as it was
>>>> the
>>> first response to something like this.  In the link,
>>> it seems that only one netflix representative was spoken to. Why not ask,
>>> via email or phone, if there is anyone to which one can
>>> speak to figure out how you can colaborate to making netflix movies
>>> descriptive.
>>> 
>>>> My personal opinion, you're not going to get much headway with this.
>>>> This
>>> issue doesn't affect all blind people, and so not all
>>> blind people are going to be on board with this.
>>> 
>>>> As some may know, i'm interested in becoming a certified dog trainer, and
>>> one could argue that that doesn't affect all blind
>>> people. owever it is a potential job prospect, which affects income, and
>>> jobs and income are not the same as the ability to have
>>> descriptive movies.
>>> 
>>>> Furthermore, not all blind people like movies in descriptive and find it
>>> destracting.  Depending on the movie, i am one such
>>> person, so my thoughts here could be a little bias.
>>> 
>>>> Would it be nice for just the option to watch movies in descriptive?
>>>> sure.
>>> But i think before we jump to "let's sue them", we
>>> should at least do something more passive.  A petition perhaps?
>>> 
>>>> Just my thoughts.
>>>> 
>>>> On Jul 15, 2013, at 10:13 AM, The weird writer
>>>> <weirdwriter9891 at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>>> Netflix says "no" to audio description. why?
>>> http://netflixproject.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/netflix-says-no-to-audio-
>>> description/
>>>>> 
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>> 
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Mary Fernandez
> "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will
> forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them
> feel."
> —
> Maya Angelou
> 
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