Kudos to Netflix for agreeing to caption all of its streaming content by 2014. Perhaps this will prompt all of the major streaming video players to ensure that their content is accessible. And a big “fuck you” to the Ars Technica commenters who suggested that deaf customers can take their money elsewhere if they aren’t happy with Netflix’s accessibility. As if Hulu and Amazon are doing all they can to capture the lucrative deaf demographic. The whole point of laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act is to compel businesses, within reasonable limits, to make its goods and services accessible to the public when free market principles might otherwise dictate inaction. As a nation, we’ve decided that it’s important for people with disabilities to be included in all aspects of everyday life, including consumerism. But because of recalcitrant corporations and our unceasing hero worship of unbridled capitalism, people with disabilities are forced to constantly re-litigate the question of whether we deserve to be fully participating members of society.
