Saying “Thank You” for Quality Closed Captions: A Promising Shift in Inviting Access

Abstract

Even as deaf and hard of hearing filmmakers and activists repeatedly call for quality captions on all video content, many non-deaf filmmakers have managed to remain unaware of the need for and purpose of captions. Implicit biases drive many filmmakers to exclude access from their budgets and their films. These biases include a notion that caption users are not a viable audience, concerns that captions will threaten the beauty of video images by covering part of the screen, and an audist attitude that any level and quality of transcription of spoken dialogue must be adequate. The author is a hearing captioner and filmmaker. In this essay, she reflects on how she advocates for film accessibility through captions. She describes her strategy, how she frames “onscreen real estate,” and responses from filmmakers for captions, including the hopeful way that some say thank you. Quality captions are contrasted against woefully inadequate captions—or “craptions”—provided automatically by YouTube and by companies with cut-rate services. The author considers a focus on inviting access rather than waiting for a compliance-based method of only captioning a film when the filmmaker learns it is required.