On Wednesday, June 6, 2012 is a very important date for all of us to let the world know that we demand FULL ACCESSIBILITY for all online videos!
Go and visit Facebook page on #captionThis and click “LIKE”
The big day is quickly approaching and some of you are unsure of what to do on June 6th. No worries! I’ve compiled a quick ‘n easy #captionTHIS guide on taking action. There are three things you can do:
1. Contact news organizations/companies via email/contact page
While spreading the word is crucial to the social media movement, the most important thing here is to actually contact the news organizations, either via email or their contact page. On Wednesday, June 6, be sure to take at least 15 minutes out of your day to let various media companies know how you feel about the lack of online accessibility for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Click here for an email template and a list of contacts/links.
2. Use the #captionTHIS hashtag on Twitter
If you’re on Twitter, great! If not, create an account. On 6/6, start tweeting links of videos (or sites with videos) that aren’t captioned with the hashtag #captionTHIS. Be sure to mention (@) the news organizations/companies that have failed to provide equal access to information.
List of a handful of news organizations on Twitter:
CNN = @CNN
Netflix = @Netflix
Amazon = @Amazon
ESPN = @ESPN
Huffington Post = @HuffPostMedia
NBC = @NBC
ABC = @ABC
CBS = @CBStweet
Fox News = @FoxNews
NFL = @NFL
Yahoo! = @Yahoo
Example Tweet #1: “Hey @CNN, please #captionTHIS: http://bit.ly/Lj96Nk. Your videos aren’t accessible to the deaf/hard of hearing.”
- or -
Example Tweet #2: “@Yahoo I’m a teacher & I want to share your videos w/my deaf students but they’re unable to access the vids bec of no captions. #captionTHIS”
Important: Include the “@” when contacting the news companies on Twitter. If you do not, they are not going to see your tweets.
Alternatively, you could check out the trending #captionTHIS tweets and re-tweet the ones you like.
Are you in the UK? Use this hashtag as well: #subtitlesnow. Follow @peskypeople for more information on the UK captioning movement!
3. Share this blog post on Facebook
Let your friends and family know by posting the link on Facebook: http://blog.deafpolitics.org/2012/06/captionthis-how-to-take-action-on-66.html. Encourage them to join the #captionTHIS movement and take action on 6/6! For every person that becomes involved, the noise intensifies 10x.
YouTube Videos on #captionTHIS movement can be viewed here.