Netflix has been at the center of several legal battles as of late, including contract issues with Sony and the controversy over whether sharing your password should be a felony.
Now, the newest lawsuit opened against the streaming video giant takes aim at the service’s lack of subtitles for its “Watch Instantly” videos and TV shows.
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The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) alleges that Netflix is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Here’s the crux of the issue, according to the court document:
The failure of Netflix to provide equal access to millions of deaf and hard of hearing individuals violates the mandate of the ADA to provide “full and equal enjoyment” of a public accommodation’s goods, services, facilities, and privileges, including “place[s] of exhibition and entertainment,” “place[s] of recreation,” “sales or rental establishment[s],” and “service establishments.”
While Netflix currently supports over 15 million users, the NAD will try to prove that the internet qualifies as a “place of exhibition and entertainment.” Per the complaint, approximately 36 million Americans are deaf or hard of hearing.
In a blog post pointed out by Lance Whitney of CNET, Netflix’s chief product officer, Neil Hunt, wrote that 80% of the company’s streaming video should have subtitles by the end of 2011.
Netflix has stated that technical issues have held the the company back from widely implementing closed captions, while the lawsuit contends that the issue has been brought up multiple times in the past to no avail.
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