After apology, Chris Pratt has a lesson for Instagram

American actor Chris Pratt posted an Instagram video on Thursday, advocating for closed captions to be an option for all Instagram videos.

The video was a part of an apology post to those he offended when he posted a previous video asking his followers to turn up the volume and not just read the subtitles.

In his first post, the Guardians of the Galaxy actor had the intention of capturing the attention of his audience, so they would watch the video and digest the information relayed to them. However, he quickly learned from comments that he was offending the deaf and hard of hearing community.

“…I realize now doing so was incredibly insensitive to the many folks out there who depend on subtitles,” Chris said in his appology. “More than 38 million Americans live with some sort of hearing disability. So I want to apologize.”

He mentioned that he knows hard of hearing people and said, “in the future I’ll try to be a little less ignorant about it.”

View this post on Instagram

Instagram does this thing where it mutes all the videos it shows and forces you to turn on the volume in order to hear them. (maybe because most people are watching those videos at work when they should be working and don't want to get caught. I know that's when I do it. 😬) So when I made a video recently with subtitles, and requested that people turn up the volume and not just "read the subtitles" it was so people wouldn't scroll past the video on mute, thus watching and digesting the information in the video. HOWEVER, I realize now doing so was incredibly insensitive to the many folks out there who depend on subtitles. More than 38 million Americans live with some sort of hearing disability. So I want to apologize. I have people in my life who are hearing-impaired, and the last thing in the world I would want to do is offend them or anybody who suffers from hearing loss or any other disability. So truly from the bottom of my heart I apologize. Thanks for pointing this out to me. In the future I'll try to be a little less ignorant about it. Now… I know some of you are going to say, "Hey! Chris only apologized because his publicist made him!" Well. That is not the case. As always I control my social media. Nobody else. And I am doing this because I'm actually really sorry. Apologies are powerful. I don't dole them out Willy-Nilly. This is one of those moments where I screwed up and here's me begging your pardon. I hope you accept my apology. And on that note. Why doesn't Instagram have some kind of technology to automatically add subtitles to its videos? Or at least the option. I did a little exploring and it seems lacking in that area. Shouldn't there be an option for closed captioning or something? I've made them lord knows how much money with my videos and pictures. Essentially sharing myself for free. I know they profit. So… GET ON IT INSTAGRAM!!! Put closed captioning on your app. #CCinstaNow

A post shared by chris pratt (@prattprattpratt) on May 4, 2017 at 5:59am PDT

In addition to writing out his apology he also signed his apology in his video.

Now that the importance of closed captions has been brought to his attention, Chris also questioned why Instagram doesn’t have an on/off option for closed captions. He told Instagram that there is no excuse for not having the option and they need to get it on the app now. He included the hashtag #CCinstanow.

Instagram is just one of many technology apps that users, especially those with hearing loss, could benefit from closed captioning. Social media platforms are getting better with adding closed captions to videos, but a problem still remains.

Read more: Deaf YouTuber begins campaign for better captions #nomorecaptions

As Chris mentions, what matters is that there should always be a closed caption option for all videos. 

Do you rely on captions on social videos? Let us know in the captions, or share your opinion about why closed captions matter to you by using the hashtag #CCinstanow on Instagram. 

• Author Details

Author Details

Kirsten Brackett

Kirsten is the managing editor of Hearing Like Me. She has a moderate hearing loss and currently wears Phonak Audéo B-R rechargeable hearing aids. Outside of working for Hearing Like Me, she can be found exploring new cities, trying out new recipes in her kitchen, or hiking. She loves learning about different cultures and languages.