Netflix Is Being Sued Over ADA Violations!

I am very glad you saved me the effort of having to write a post about this.

I am a NetFlix online subscriber, and so very often I am shaking my fist at my AV display because of bad or inadequate sound on content shown on NetFlix.

I have wondered if this is NetFlix's way to get more business for their DVD rental department because there are many movies that are almost complete undecipherable to hearing people.

I have looked and looked for a control to turn on subtitles and it is completely missing from NetFlix. I can live with a lower than normal picture quality ... which is still pretty good, but very few movies do not require the audience to be able to understand what is being said.

I completely support and agree with the ADA's complaints and subsequent lawsuit over this issue, and NetFlix ought to know better and have done better.

I'd like to hear what NetFlix has to say about why they have, seemingly deliberately made the decisions to downgrade their online movie-going experience this way?

Ahh the ADA...the Lawyer Full Employment Act. What would this country do without it?

I owned a business once, and fully understand some issues I may not have thought of in accommodation and fine, but some things I had to do were really ridiculous and a complete waste of money.

The intention of the Act may have been worthy to some extent (by forcing people/businesses to spend accommodation monies) but the biggest result of this law has been to give lawyers a huge opportunity.

Some of the biggest offenders (and then biggest payers on lawsuits) has been the varying levels of government...ironic isn't it?

I don't really know how all this works, but doesn't Netflix just provide under license agreements what others produce? In other words, if the maker/distributor of a certain movie doesn't offer a sub-titled version, what can they do?

This is a huge issue in the deaf/hard-of-hearing community. As an adult, I lost all my hearing, and so I understand how it feels to be left out. Although I have a hearing aid, it doesn't help 100% and I NEED closed captions. I would say Netflix only has about 30% of its movies captioned or subtitled when streaming. It's a shame, really. I really hate having to wait for a DVD to arrive in the mail, only to find it's so badly scratched it doesn't work, or that it doesn't have CC or subtitles. We don't have a DVD player in our TV. We use our computer, and therefore, the CC on any DVDs we get don't work. If there aren't subtitles, then I'm screwed. It's a basic accommodations issue. If hearing people can enjoy it, then people with hearing loss should be able to, as well. That includes subtitles and captions.

And yes, NAD has a very good case. Many of my friends have complained up and down about the poor captioning and lack of subtitles.

Yeah, but the courts go after businesses and exempt themselves. I'm also hearing-impaired, and I've had to sit thru several court proceedings without being able to hear the friggin' lawyers, the judge. The courts need to practice what they preach!

I hope that netflix looses this one.

I hope they don't!

There are a lot of services I get screwed out of but don't file lawsuits. they just loose out on money from me. Netflix is charging more for DVD rental and I finally left them because they had fewer copy of movies on DVD so the wait got to long. The internet has never worked well enough for this down stream on demand thing. Now, unless it comes on TV or I can afford to buy it, I just don't see it. Sooner or later netflix will do away with all dvd rentals and I imagine all others will too.