A extended comment I made on Ridor's blog
Ridor broached the topic of captioning, or the lack thereof, in in-flight movies aboard planes on his blog. That stirred up enough anger in my gut that I made a long comment in regard to his 8/25/05 tidbits post. What did Ridor say to set me off?
This is what I commented:
SECONDED, about the lack of captioning for in-flight movies. I just flew on JetBlue, and only IF I could watch their in-flight TV with CC! Heck, they got like 30 channels, and I can only watch CNN Headline News, ESPN, or the Animal Channel. They got ABC, NBC, CBS, the History Channel and etcccccc, and I can't even enjoy it! The ADA does not apply to airlines. That doesn't make logical sense! I feel like it's being rubbed in my face when I see their ads that extol the in-flight TVs for each seat, as a way to kill time. Hello???? Even blind people got their in-flight headphones and music.
We should start a concerted, organized campaign to get JetBlue to CC their channels. Or, at least, set aside like 5 seats in every plane that is CC-equipped. After all, they use DirecTV to get the TV channels, so that means they already have the CC signal, so it's just a matter of adding the $5 CC chip.
If they don't listen.... We then seek advice from Osama bin Laden and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed on what to do next. First, the capitalistic method, by giving them an easy solution to the problem. If they don't take the solution, or come up with something that appeases us, we then go on to borrow Islamist tactics to achieve our objectives. Of course, I am not implying that we start killing people or even engage in one iota of violence.
My idea of terrorism is not to blow up JetBlue planes in mid-air over Kansas, but to engage in sound terrorism. Use discreetly-placed loudspeakers that spew disgustingly jarring noises, so the hearing people cannot hear their TVs, and continue that till they enable CCs for their TVs.
Rico tells me that he never has this problem, because on KLM flights, the American movies are subtitled in Dutch, and that is the case in all Dutch movie theaters. Not frickin' fair. And I don't see the hearing Europeans complain about their subtitles.
*PLFFFFTH* TO THE HEARING PEOPLE WHO GIVE A DAMN IF THERE ARE SUBTITLES ON THE SCREEN!
This kind of thing, the hearing people don't REALIZE, pisses Deaf people enough to the point where they start thinking about terrorism, because there is no way to solve this problem, while all the fat CEOs are earning their m-billions. It doesn't take millions to caption stuff!
Here is a follow-up comment that I made after someone said on that blog's comments page that I'm seemingly angry today:
This issue has been a thorn in my side for quite a while. Ridor's comment just happened to have the effect of salt being rubbed into the wound where the thorn is sticking in my side. So, it is not only today that I am angry, when it comes to captioning issues. I am gonna stay angry till the day comes when I can walk in ANY movie theater on a whim and watch ANY movie that happens to be showing, and to be able to enjoy airplane flights as any other hearing person would do.
1950's-era segregration still exists today, in the form of denying us access to captions. It is just like telling a Negro in 1955 that he is not able to take a drink of water out of the ice-cold water fountain, and that he is welcome to take a sip from the dirty warm-water spigot right next to the gleaming techonological gizmo. It was just a matter of simple inconvenience for the racist whites when they had the blacks "dirtying up" their clean, filtered cold-water fountains. Much easier to simply deny them access to the cold-water fountains, yes? Likewise, it is a much easier convenience for the hearing audists to deny us access to subtitles, because it won't "dirty up" their silver screens.
The only difference is that nowadays, they don't put up signs that say "Whites only." They should add a disclaimer before every in-flight movie, or as a label affixed on each JetBlue seat TV that says "This showing is for Hearing people only. Deaf people are not able to watch this show. Enjoy." It makes no difference to the segregration era, WHEN the captioning technology is RIGHT HERE and available for airlines to use.
It would really be cool if we could distribute amongst Deaf people a DirecTV signal-jamming device to bring on board JetBlue flights, and sound-jamming noisemaker devices to bring into all movie theaters that don't give a damn about Deaf people, in order to terrorize those who feel offended by the use of captions. It would essentially be a form of civil disobedience, just like what Rosa Parks and MLK did. Sit-in protests were definitely a big inconvenience for white racists. The only thing inconveniencing them were their bigoted views. Things began to change after Malcolm X and MLK began inspiring black people to stand up for themselves. We need to emulate what they did in order to attain civil equality. Only when they rose up did the whites really start to take them seriously.
Remember, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a big offense to many whites. Still no excuse. No excuse for hearing people to deny us captions on the basis that it is an inconvenience, not for those who are paying for it, but for those hearing people distracted by subtitles.
Don't You Hate It When ... : A friend of mine from California told me that when she flew to San Jose from Maui, Hawai'i, she watched a film on the plane which featured our friend, Ty Giordano in A Lot Like Love. She was furious that the film was not captioned. She attempted to ask the flight attendant who came up with lame excuses that they do not have the equipment.
It reminds me of one I dealt with when I flew to Los Angeles, I asked the flight attendant to turn the captions on as I can see where she meddled the box that handles the TV and VCR, know what she said, "But the captions offended fliers, we do not want to offend them. Sorry."
That pissed me off. How dare of her! I rather to crash the plane than to endure the lack of captioned films on long trips. That, having to watch the uncaptioned film, is a form of torture, in my opinion.
This is what I commented:
SECONDED, about the lack of captioning for in-flight movies. I just flew on JetBlue, and only IF I could watch their in-flight TV with CC! Heck, they got like 30 channels, and I can only watch CNN Headline News, ESPN, or the Animal Channel. They got ABC, NBC, CBS, the History Channel and etcccccc, and I can't even enjoy it! The ADA does not apply to airlines. That doesn't make logical sense! I feel like it's being rubbed in my face when I see their ads that extol the in-flight TVs for each seat, as a way to kill time. Hello???? Even blind people got their in-flight headphones and music.
We should start a concerted, organized campaign to get JetBlue to CC their channels. Or, at least, set aside like 5 seats in every plane that is CC-equipped. After all, they use DirecTV to get the TV channels, so that means they already have the CC signal, so it's just a matter of adding the $5 CC chip.
If they don't listen.... We then seek advice from Osama bin Laden and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed on what to do next. First, the capitalistic method, by giving them an easy solution to the problem. If they don't take the solution, or come up with something that appeases us, we then go on to borrow Islamist tactics to achieve our objectives. Of course, I am not implying that we start killing people or even engage in one iota of violence.
My idea of terrorism is not to blow up JetBlue planes in mid-air over Kansas, but to engage in sound terrorism. Use discreetly-placed loudspeakers that spew disgustingly jarring noises, so the hearing people cannot hear their TVs, and continue that till they enable CCs for their TVs.
Rico tells me that he never has this problem, because on KLM flights, the American movies are subtitled in Dutch, and that is the case in all Dutch movie theaters. Not frickin' fair. And I don't see the hearing Europeans complain about their subtitles.
*PLFFFFTH* TO THE HEARING PEOPLE WHO GIVE A DAMN IF THERE ARE SUBTITLES ON THE SCREEN!
This kind of thing, the hearing people don't REALIZE, pisses Deaf people enough to the point where they start thinking about terrorism, because there is no way to solve this problem, while all the fat CEOs are earning their m-billions. It doesn't take millions to caption stuff!
Here is a follow-up comment that I made after someone said on that blog's comments page that I'm seemingly angry today:
This issue has been a thorn in my side for quite a while. Ridor's comment just happened to have the effect of salt being rubbed into the wound where the thorn is sticking in my side. So, it is not only today that I am angry, when it comes to captioning issues. I am gonna stay angry till the day comes when I can walk in ANY movie theater on a whim and watch ANY movie that happens to be showing, and to be able to enjoy airplane flights as any other hearing person would do.
1950's-era segregration still exists today, in the form of denying us access to captions. It is just like telling a Negro in 1955 that he is not able to take a drink of water out of the ice-cold water fountain, and that he is welcome to take a sip from the dirty warm-water spigot right next to the gleaming techonological gizmo. It was just a matter of simple inconvenience for the racist whites when they had the blacks "dirtying up" their clean, filtered cold-water fountains. Much easier to simply deny them access to the cold-water fountains, yes? Likewise, it is a much easier convenience for the hearing audists to deny us access to subtitles, because it won't "dirty up" their silver screens.
The only difference is that nowadays, they don't put up signs that say "Whites only." They should add a disclaimer before every in-flight movie, or as a label affixed on each JetBlue seat TV that says "This showing is for Hearing people only. Deaf people are not able to watch this show. Enjoy." It makes no difference to the segregration era, WHEN the captioning technology is RIGHT HERE and available for airlines to use.
It would really be cool if we could distribute amongst Deaf people a DirecTV signal-jamming device to bring on board JetBlue flights, and sound-jamming noisemaker devices to bring into all movie theaters that don't give a damn about Deaf people, in order to terrorize those who feel offended by the use of captions. It would essentially be a form of civil disobedience, just like what Rosa Parks and MLK did. Sit-in protests were definitely a big inconvenience for white racists. The only thing inconveniencing them were their bigoted views. Things began to change after Malcolm X and MLK began inspiring black people to stand up for themselves. We need to emulate what they did in order to attain civil equality. Only when they rose up did the whites really start to take them seriously.
Remember, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a big offense to many whites. Still no excuse. No excuse for hearing people to deny us captions on the basis that it is an inconvenience, not for those who are paying for it, but for those hearing people distracted by subtitles.
3 Comments:
Let's revolt! Our third president of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson, suggested that Americans should revolt every 20 years, in order to keep the government updated and adapted to the newly modern society.
As of the Deaf society, we require captioning and visual aids for audios and never have got these assistances. WE ARE LEFT WITH OPPPRESSION AND DISCRIMINATION!
It is the attitude that people with authorities, who authorize the rights of captioning to any forum of media, ignore the needs of Deaf people and persevere some hundred of thousands of dollars in their pocket, which they won’t invest their money for our need.
Yet, I suspect that they don’t want to make us smarter, but rather keep us dumb where we cannot understand a single word throughout the spoken dialects. Of course, that is a so terribly nasty attitude, embroidered into hate against us, the Deaf Society, and the Deaf.
Shall we revolt for the better cause? For our children? For the better future for the Deaf?
REVOLT OR BUST!
Jason,
I made a couple of entries regarding Jet Blue's refusal to provide open captioning for deaf passengers.
Let's keep on bugging Jet Blue!
-Kevin
oohhh i just had a great idea! we could print out stickers and affix it on JetBlue TVs whenever we fly JetBlue. The stickers could say "WARNING: This TV does not contain captions, which is known to cause mental suffering to deaf human beings."
It could easily be made to look like those warnings on cigarette packs, prominent yet discreet.
This would have a better impact rather than having propagandistic slogans, such as "JetBlue discriminates!" or the one that I mentioned earlier, "This showing is for Hearing people only. Deaf people are not able to watch this show. Enjoy" That way, we could ensure that most stickers don't get peeled off. We could even pass them on to passengers sitting next to us. I guarantee that this will have an effect.
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