Fans of Netflix's Queer Eye already know that Karamo Brown is an incredibly loving and empathetic human. But now the show's "culture expert" has made a huge impact by standing up for Deaf and hard of hearing fans of the hit show.
It all started when fans started tweeting about the fact that the captioning for Queer Eye (and some other Netflix titles) seemed to be edited and censored and calling the practice out as ableist.
Others have pointed out that even dialogue that does not contain profanity has been edited or pared down, when all captioning should be verbatim.
Twitter user Blake Reid also pointed out that this practice falls short of the FCC's caption quality standards.
As a @netflix original, probably not subject to the FCC’s rules unless it’s later syndicated, but maintaining verbatim captions is a requirement for covered programs. Totally unacceptable. @netflix, you know better. Fix this. https://t.co/2yysDwabgo https://t.co/2tJL8Ftc1l
Karamo quickly took notice, and pledged to speak up about the issue.
Reading everyone’s comments breaks my heart. I don’t know how much power I have but know, the next time I’m at Netflix I’m going to bring up this issue internally & wont stop until something changes. Deaf & HOH people should have the same experience as everyone else! #TypoFixed https://t.co/AQ4emvgUBv
In fact, this is not the first time he has supported the Deaf/HOH community. Earlier this month he posted a video promising to use captioning on all of his personal videos so that everyone has access to the content.
#DearFriends, as a culture I’ve noticed we often don’t know how we can support ppl w/ disabilities. So I’m committing to making small changes in my life. U will now see my videos captioned for my deaf/ hard of hearing friends. I would love for u to post other ways we can support. https://t.co/zHBRf69p8S
Netflix has since responded to the fans via Twitter:
They seem to have acknowledged the issue and plan to fix it, and credit Karamo and the fans who brought it to their attention.
Fans were grateful that Karamo stood up and used his voice to amplify their own.
@KaramoBrown hate it when my phone autocorrects that way! thank you, karamo. it means the world to know you’re behind us and using the influence you have to correct ableism! makes me wanna hug you even more than i already want to. thank you for making the world a better place
"Same experience for all."
