I Need Captioning Supporters—Will You Join Me?

I was about to give up using Twitter. Honestly, I tend to be more of a Facebook girl.

But this week when actress Marlee Matlin (who is deaf) proposed a Twitter campaign to make others aware about captioning, I was all over it. All you have to do is visit my page, the Lipreading Mom Captions Campaign, to understand how passionate I am about all media being accessible to those of us with hearing loss.

The #captionTHIS Movement

Here is how the Twitter campaign worked. For 24 hours on June 6th, Twitter users were asked to contact organizations and post updates about why captioned content is so important. Using the Twitter trending topic (hash tag) #captionTHIS, users posted why captioning mattered to them—and why every online video, major motion picture, TV program, and live event should be captioned.

Here are some of the posts that me (@LipreadingMom) and others shared with the Twitter world:

Shanna Groves‏@LipreadingMom – Weather captions can save lives. #captionTHIS

Jamie Berke‏@DeafnessGuide – Captioning needs to be routinely incorporated into budgets and production plans, even for videos by the little guys. #captionTHIS

Amber Zion‏@AmberZion – @CNN I had to ask my coworker to watch the video for me and tell me what was going on. #embarrassed #captionTHIS

Rhi‏@RhianonElan – I remember when @Pixar didn’t caption #UP. It’s unrealistic to lipread animated characters. Animation must be captioned! #captionTHIS

NAD – Official Site‏@NADtweets – @abc @abcnews Don’t leave millions of deaf/hoh (hard of hearing) viewers in the dark. Caption all online video clips and programs not on TV! #captionTHIS

It’s Not Too Late—Support Captioning!

This weekend, I urge all of you to fill your Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media accounts with this message: ALL VIDEOS MUST HAVE CAPTIONS!

Here is my pledge: From now on, Lipreading Mom will only post, share, or support videos that are captioned so that everyone can enjoy them.

Will you make the same commitment?

~*~*~*~*

Follow Lipreading Mom on Twitter and Facebook!