skip to main |
skip to sidebar
From
SF Weekly:
For Robert Kingett (pictured), a young blind man based in Chicago, fun includes playing video games and watching movies.
Luckily, in this day and age, adaptive technology allows blind people
the opportunity to enjoy many pastimes the rest of us take for granted.
Descriptive audio is a feature available in some theaters and on select
DVDs which can allow the blind to follow the storyline of a film along
with sighted film buffs. Descriptive audio is exactly what it sounds
like: if a film's leading lady slaps her cad of a boyfriend (or
girlfriend) in the face, a narrator will quickly, in between dialogue,
say "she slaps his/her face."
With Netflix poised
to become one of the largest home video providers through online
subscriptions, Kingett is publicly challenging the Bay Area-based video
streaming company to make its content accessible to the blind and
visually impaired through what he calls the Netflix Accessible Project.
Kingett spoke to SF Weekly about this daunting task, and about
his life as a gay, blind, and physically disabled man who is nonetheless
making his mark on the world.
SF Weekly: Describe your campaign in your own words.
Kingett: The Accessible Netflix Project is a campaign to make
Netflix more accessible to blind people and to people using adaptive
physical devices as well. A lot of people believe we are all about audio
description and nothing else but that's far from the truth. We are a
group that demands that Netflix do what should have been done a long
time ago and make the screen player fully available to screen readers.
Make the iPhone application accessible. Add audio description to their
streamed shows and movies when its already on DVDs and TV shows. We are a
team who says this should happen because there's no excuse anymore and
it's long overdue. We are also reaching out to others like Hulu,
Blockbuster Instant, Amazon Instant and even services in the UK.
People are using the internet more and more to watch movies and TV
shows. If audio description is already available on DVDs and TV shows
than just put it on the server. It's not hard to do and it's a shame it
isn't happening. We're here to make sure it happens even if it takes us
years.
SF Weekly: Have you heard from Netflix?
Kingett: We have heard from Netflix and they have told us that
it's not their responsibility. Another time they told us "don't expect
this anytime soon". In PR speak that basically means "we won't do it, so
shut up and go away."
SF Weekly: Can you tell us more about who you are?
Kingett: I attended the Florida School For the Deaf and Blind. I
was a premature baby, only six ounces, so I guess you could say that I
brushed against death and turned around and kicked it square in the jaw.
My lungs weren't developing, so the doctors had to place me in an
incubator. They didn't monitor the oxygen very well, so as a result I'm
legally blind. I'm guessing the cerebral palsy developed from me being
born way earlier than I should have been. I guess my birth was epic
foreshadowing, because it certainly gave clues as to what kind of
fighter I was.
I wrote all the time, and not just in one style either. I wrote all
kinds of things from book reviews to essays to letters to persuasive
arguments, even at a younger age. I read books like people eat food.
That was my outlet: reading, writing and video games.
I created a paper at the blind high school that is continued to this day.
SF Weekly: Your Facebook page makes us think you're also a comic book and sci-fi fan.
Kingett: I was, and am, your typical white and nerdy guy. I was,
and am, very much into books and video games. I'm skinny, and I still
watch Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh as an adult. I'm proudly a nerdy gay guy and
my husband will just have to deal with that and bake me cookies now and
then, and read me books, too. Man, is he going to have a rough life!
SF Weekly: Do you think people have become more sensitive
to the needs of the blind and disabled? Where might there be room for
improvement and what can be done to make things better?
Kingett: People are more sensitive to the blind and disabled but
there's still this huge lack of awareness and I don't know where this
ignorance comes from. There have been countless examples of disabled
people doing things that people say we can't do, such as writer,
journalist, doctor, social worker, IT Tech Personnel, but there's still
this huge ignorance everywhere you look.
The biggest improvements need to come in the form of employment and
media. I don't see disabled people in ads, or disabled actors and
actresses starring on TV, in movies or in commercials. If there is a
disabled character in a movie, it's usually played by a person who just
looked up disabled on Pediatric.
SF Weekly: The 25th Anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act passed a few weeks ago. What does the ADA mean to you?
Kingett: The ADA has given the disabled the power to tell people
what is what and I believe that kind of motivation is huge. It's letting
others know who disabled people are. Let's them continue to promote the
ADA and display what the ADA stands for. I've had employers not hire me
because I'm disabled. We've all had that in the disabled community, so
the ADA means a lot to me now and in the future because soon that will
no longer be an issue.
SF Weekly: You will be continuing with the Netflix campaign?
Kingett: We have tried several times to contact the studios of
movies and TV shows. It's hard to get names and email addresses of the
people we need to talk to. That requires a lot of digging on LinkedIn.
Voicemails are never returned. Also, when you have a stutter, people are
not very patient. So when I try to make a call, I'm told they don't
have time to talk to you and I'm hung up on A LOT.
We did break through one time, though. Fox, the network which does
Family Guy, had an assistant producer talk with her team about sharing
the audio description files with Netflix. Netflix could have the files
if they just asked for it. Netflix never did ask for it and have ignored
our emails ever since.
