Deaf YouTubers lead movement to put an end to crappy video captions

11.11.2016
If you've ever watched a YouTube video with auto-generated closed captioning, you know the garbled result is giggle-worthy.

But it's actually a major problem. Inadequate closed captioning is failing deaf and hard of hearing viewers around the world.

A new campaign dubbed #NoMoreCraptions is calling out "crappy" captions on YouTube, where creators are asking each other to make their content more accessible by writing their own captions on their videos.

YouTuber Rikki Poynter started the campaign in late September to close out Deaf Awareness Month, saying terrible, auto-generated captions needlessly restrict YouTube's accessibility.

"You're missing out on quite a few subscribers by not providing access to deaf and hard of hearing viewers," she tells Mashable via email. "If you truly want all of your viewers to get involved in your content and your channel, captioning is the way to go."

According to the World Health Organization, 5 percent of the world population — or about 360 million people — are deaf and hard of hearing. That number includes many YouTube users who, like Poynter, are often blocked from fully experiencing videos because of inaccurate captioning.

Poynter, who is deaf, has been advocating for better closed captioning over the past two years. She has created multiple videos on the subject throughout her YouTube career, and has presented at VidCon twice on how creators can make their videos more accessible.

"I'm always advocating," she says. "I just do it in different ways."

That work hasn't always been easy to take on, Poynter admits. It's time-consuming, and she often only reaches a couple of invested creators.

With #NoMoreCraptions, however, Poynter decided to expand her reach. She put out a call to vloggers across YouTube, asking them to make videos that encourage other creators to start captioning their own videos.


As part of the campaign, Poynter posted a video on how to caption YouTube videos following FCC guidelines for TV, even though YouTube is not regulated by the commission. That includes limiting captions to no more than two lines for easy reading, using proper grammar, and captioning all words and background noises to the fullest extent possible, according to Poynter.

That extra work broadens audiences — and makes all the difference when it comes to someone like her engaging with a creator's work.

"I am friends with vloggers who do not caption their videos, but I do not always watch or share their content because of the lack of captioning," Poynter says. "I try to make sure all the videos I share to my viewers are captioned."

Poynter says about 40 YouTubers have participated in the #NoMoreCraptions movement so far by making videos about the importance of closed captioning. She's hoping for more engagement as the campaign continues to pick up steam, and hopes YouTubers with larger audiences join the trend.

"I cannot do this by myself," Poynter wrote in a Tumblr post announcing the launch of the campaign. "I am one person in a world of 7 billion. I can only make so many 'Caption Your Videos!' videos. Every channel has a different audience consisting of different people. In order to reach out to everyone, I need everyone's help."