Increasingly, online video content is becoming integral to our lives streaming shows straight to our desktops and dvrs. Unfortunately, our current legislation does not require captioning to be included in this distribution. And so, it isn’t.

In fact, captioning availability is going backwards. Recently Disney/Pixar stripped their rental dvds of captioning making this part of its “bonus features.” You only get the bonus features if you buy the dvd.  Many other movie production houses are planning on following suit.

Current legislation requires captioning technology to be available to television and telephone users. These laws need to be revised to include changing and emerging technologies including television and movies distributed over the internet as well as other reasonable outlets of video content.

Please ensure that closed captioning survives by signing this petition.

(I have only covered the entertainment portion of what this bill will do, as that is the part that effects me the most. But for people that can not communicate via telephone like I can, this bill will help in very immediate and critical ways.  Read more here.)

• More than 45,000 vets from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom have hearing loss.
• Of the 300,000 vets from the post 9/11/01 conflict, tinnitus is the #1 disability and hearing loss is #2.
• 35% of returning troops from Iraq and Afghanistan have hearing loss.

Any decibel above 85 is considered harmful.  Rifle fire is 150 decibels.  Bombing practices regularly hit 110 - 130 decibels.   Some troops have their hearing damaged during a skirmish and then can not hear commands that lead them to safety.    Their fellow soldiers are yelling at them to run or duck, but they can no longer hear.  As a hearing-impaired person whose chief complaint is missing out on some conversation during a social outing, this is horrifying.

But here is an even more horrifying part:   Most of these cases of hearing loss were because the soldier opted not to wear hearing protection.   Air Force Col. Joseph A. Brennan, the ENT doctor at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, asks every soldier whom complains of hearing related issues if they were wearing hearing protection.  “Since I arrived here in May, I have not had one service member answer yes to that question,” he says.

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Here’s the gist:  if you need to make a call, you log in to the CapTel website (once you are registered), input your own telephone number and the number you want to call.  In a second, your phone will ring and shortly thereafter, the number you are calling will ring.  As the conversation takes place, captions appear on your your computer screen - in the window you just input your numbers into.

If you want to receive a call, your caller calls a special number you have been assigned and enter your telephone number.  Moments later, your phone will ring, and the conversation will be captioned on your computer.  This seems more complicated than it really is.  Do it once and it’s a cinch.

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But guess what?  Closed captioning isn’t included in the download.  My first movie, About a Boy, is full of Hugh Grant voiceovers.  I missed every word.  I complained straight to Amazon. Here’s what they said:

Greetings from Amazon.com.

Thank you for writing to us about closed captioning and Amazon Unbox
videos.

Unfortunately we do not offer closed captioning at this time. The
availability of content through our Amazon Unbox service depends on
our agreements and arrangements with various content owners. We are
constantly working to establish and improve these agreements so we can
offer the largest range of content possible.

It is always important for us to hear how customers react to all
aspects of shopping at Amazon.com.  Strong customer feedback like
yours helps us continue to improve the selection and service we
provide, and we appreciate the time you took to write to us.

Thank you for your interest in Amazon Unbox video downloads on Amazon.com.

Bummer.

Join me in telling Amazon that their agreements with their content owners need to include closed captioning.  Go to Amazon.com, and look for the contact us button on the side.  Surely 31 million people deserve this support!

Harpo has set a wonderful precedent for including captioning with their online content, but there’s still a way to go.  During a half-hour perusal of her site, I found several videos without captioning, right along side several videos with it.  Either way, I want to thank Oprah and her staff for including captioning in some of her efforts and encourage her to make it a regular part of posting video content on the web.

Here is what I wrote: (more…)