What is really condescending is the omission of lyrics and this new use of AI captions.
In the 1980s-2010s, when captioning was starting out, and before all the lawsuit over rights—if something was captioned, then all the information was captioned. The debate was on whether to simplify language or type everything, but the sounds, lyrics, all that was included. That just seemed to be a given.
Then along comes the movie “Walk the Line.” I put it in the DVD player and 90% of the movie is captioned as “SINGING.” I went back to the Redbox, rented another one. Still “SINGING.” I remember this distinctly because it was the first time the caption gods made the decision to withhold vital, enjoyable information.
Deaf/HH people have been fighting since but our objections are falling on deaf ears—the movie houses won’t caption lyrics if the songwriters don’t release the rights to the words, even if the vocally sung lyrics and music are included.
Now the new thing? AI captions. Gibberish. I just tried to watch a movie with AI captions and couldn’t make sense of anything. It’s funny that something from 1985 works helluva lot better than 2023.
Then there’s Stranger Things. Their sound descriptions are the best.