To expect media companies to caption their dvds for the deaf?

[lottiejenkins]

Im so so cross.. my ds (12) is profoundly deaf and adores watching his dvds. He has two Horrid Henry dvds and imagine mine and his disapointment when we saw after buying them that they werent captioned, as nearly all of them are now it didnt occur to me that they wouldnt be.... I have rung the company already and spoken to the Marketing Manager, i have to ring back later to speak to the Managing Director. Surely its not hard to put captions on DVDs. I have made my point quite forcefully to the first lady and will do the same with the MD.

Not unreasonable at all - about 95% of DVDs are captioned now, but I always get caught out by unexpected ones (eg from the BBC - Yes Minister claimed to be captioned, but the first disc wasn't...)

Even more annoying is the ones that say they are captioned but it takes forever to find the menu to do so, and then the menu is broken so you can't tell if you've switched subtitles on or not, unless you watch the first 5 minutes of the movie repeatedly (thanks, Hot Fuzz...)

Thank you for complaining!

YABNU, surely it should be the law that all dvd's released must be captioned?

I can't think of a good reason not to do it, I'm sure it does incur extra expense but at the same time it'd increase sales as people who are HOH/deaf would purchase them.

I've no hearing problems but I always watch a film with subtitles on, and if it lacks them it's a minor irritation for me, but makes the dvd of little or no use to your ds

If they supply you with a name and address to write to, if you don't mind sharing it I'll be happy to complain too.

YANBU

I would have thought all would have the means to switch subtitles on.

Have rung back and the lady is out of the office for the rest of the day....(wonder if she knows im on the warpath??) Will not let this rest now.. I am like a dog with a bone.. I will be on the phone to her tomorrow morning at 9am!!!

I also assumed that this would be covered by the DDA - certainly not unreasonable for a DVD publisher to caption any title, I'd have thought.

Go get 'em!

YANBU.

We also always put the subtitles on if we watch the film in English, because English is not DH's native language and he misses quite a lot if he only listens.

As you say, nowadays most films do have them, but there should be some standard so that all have them.

I hope you get a proper response from the company in question.

YANBU at all. Did you manage to get hold of them?

I heard back yesterday afternoon a phone message to say the company i spoke to only had the license. The person who decides on captioning is the guy who makes the programme and he is on holiday, i will be contacting him next week on his return! Im ready for a battle!! It is totally wrong that ALL dvds arent captioned and that includes the free ones you get with newspapers too!!

Totally agree, they all should be subtitled, go and kick arse!!

Lottie - I'm profoundly deaf and I cannot agree more! I think all DVDs should be subtitled! I would love to buy music dvds with subtitles so I could see the words to the songs but no luck and the same for exercise DVDs! Go get 'em girl and let me know what they say!!

I have a feeling that by the time i have finished with the guy he might wish he was still on holiday only joking!!!

Go Lottie!

And if anyone's bored, do email the newspaper of your choice complaining about the lack of subtitles on virtually all of their giveaway DVDs!

Good luck lottie, keep us updated!

i think the only non-captioned ones are ones that are released by a lower-budget distributor. basically its just an extra cost to put it on there which they may or may not decide to take on