Deaf Group Sues Netflix Over Lack of Subtitles

Among the more than 100,000 movies Netflix offers through its on-demand service, a mere 30% are equipped with subtitles. This is a reason for concern, according to the National Association of the Deaf, whom declare that Netflix is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by not providing the same sort of access to its content as those with hearing enjoy. After failed attempts from the deaf community to get the issue taken care of, NAD is instead taking things to the courts.

While some may not believe that watching streaming movies is a “right”, NAD states that 36 million people in the USA are either deaf or hard-of-hearing, while at the same time, Netflix owns 60% of the marketshare for streaming content. At that point, NAD believes that it should be a given that Netflix would offer subtitles on at least most of its content, rather than just a small collection.

Further, the suit quotes the Americans with Disabilities Act which states that all “places of entertainment” provide “full and equal enjoyment” for those with disabilities – but does Netflix count as a “place of entertainment”? We might have to wait for the courts to comment on that one.

Whether the NAD has a real case on its hands, I’m not sure, but what impresses me about all of this is that Netflix has been rather slow in getting more subtitles up for its content. This considering that DVD’s that don’t have included subtitles don’t even seem to exist – what’s been the hold-up?

As a sign that NAD might have been a little hasty in its lawsuit, Netflix had made a post on its official blog back in February which stated that the service would be upping its movies-with-subtitles count to 80% by the end of 2011 – a major increase, but one that can’t come soon enough, it seems.