Report: Deaf man sues Pornhub over lack of closed captioning
PHOENIX - A man is reportedly suing an adult video website for alleged rights violations because there is a lack of closed captioning on at least some videos.
According to TMZ, Yaroslav Suris' lawsuit against Pornhub claims the lack of closed captioning violates the rights of deaf and hearing-impaired under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In court documents cited by TMZ, Suris claims the deaf and hearing impaired can't understand the audio portion of videos on the websites, and listed a number of videos that the man watched, but couldn't understand the dialogue.
In the documents, Suris reportedly claims he and those in similar situations would pay money for a premium subscription, but calls it pointless without the subtitles.
Suris, according to the TMZ report, is suing for Pornhub to add closed captioning, in addition to damages. Pornhub officials told TMZ the website does have a closed captions category, and says the company generally does not comment on active lawsuits.
This is not the first time the issue of closed captioning for online videos has been in the spotlight. According to a 2015 report by the BBC, a YouTuber named Rikki Poynter raised awareness for closed captioning on YouTube. A video made by Poynter on the issue was cited by popular YouTuber Tyler Oakley as an inspiration for him to add closed captioning to all his videos on YouTube.