act on more subtitles
Tania often finds that her evening's viewing has been ruined by the lack of subtitles - which is particularly infuriating when she has already downloaded and paid for a film! Tania, who has moderate hearing loss, shares her story.
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I watch TV and films for entertainment and to help me relax. I enjoy sitting down with my husband to watch a good film, usually with a glass of red wine! I watch a wide range of programmes and films - this helps me participate in chats with friends and family and I like knowing that I've seen the programmes/films that everyone else has seen.
I particularly enjoy watching Sky's wide range of programmes - but am regularly frustrated if I miss a programme on TV as the subtitles are not available on the catch-up version later. As an adult I find it very difficult to be excluded from something else that everyone else can do - it takes me back to feeling like the only child at the party who isn't allowed to play!
It also makes my husband grumpy! We often settle down on the sofa to watch something that we're both looking forward to, then as soon as we discover there are no subtitles, it means we can't watch it together. I know there's nothing stopping my husband from watching it on his own but it ruins our evening's viewing. He feels guilty about watching it when I can't, I feel like I've missed out altogether and it therefore restricts what we can watch as a couple. I usually buy DVDs instead because at least they have subtitles on them and we can watch them together!! It is discrimination, pure and simple - and I should be able to watch everything the same as anyone else.
I find the lack of subtitles to be a constant problem. I can't download any on-demand programmes or box sets because it doesn't say beforehand whether they are subtitled or not. For example I recently downloaded 'War of the Worlds' with Tom Cruise but then found it had no subtitles. I had to pay for it before I could download it so that was infuriating!
I think there needs to be legislation like there is for traditional TV. The BBC service is wonderful and almost everything is subtitled - so it's obviously not a technology issue. To consider subtitles an "optional extra" shows there is an inexcusable lack of respect for millions of deafened viewers. Why do we have to constantly battle to get something that everyone else takes for granted?
Please take action now to tell Government and broadcasters to Subtitle it!
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