Queer Eye‘s Fab Five have promised to make the show more inclusive as it moves forward, which was seen in the second season’s move beyond making over only cis-gender men to include both a woman and trans person.
This week, in response to complaints made online from fans who are deaf or hard of hearing, Queer Eye’s resident culture expert and king of empathy, Karamo Brown, has stood by that promise of accessibility.
Brown was informed of the issue via Twitter, where fans who are deaf or hard of hearing and therefore rely on the subtitle captions voiced their disappointment with the discrepancies in how Netflix translates Queer Eye into text.
Fans noted that the profanity that is audibly bleeped out in the show is instead replaced with different words entirely in the captions, and in other instances the dialogue is noticeably altered and simplified.
i really wish @netflix captions for #QueerEye2 weren’t bleeping profanity AND changing the profanity used in the captions. it’s really not awesome
— ace tilton ratcliff ♿️ (@MortuaryReport) June 27, 2018
The changes I’ve noticed are usually to make things more concise. They leave bits out or reword part of a sentence to present the same general thought but with more brevity. Seems an odd choice to me. What’s wrong with the quote as-is?
— Larisa ? ??? (@iamthelolrus) June 28, 2018
The frustrated Queer Eye fans flagged how this changes the experience of the show for anyone who is deaf of hard of hearing, which is an issue of accessibility.
it fundamentally changes the experience of the television show for anyone who is d/Deaf or HOH, and it does so without their consent. that’s seriously ableist, @netflix
— ace tilton ratcliff ♿️ (@MortuaryReport) June 27, 2018
Karamo Brown, who has a history of advocating for minorities and has worked as a social worker for over a decade, responded to the fan complaints on Twitter with an active promise.
“Reading everyone’s comments breaks my heart.” His tweet reads. “I don’t know how much power I have but know, the next time I’m at Netflix I’m going to bring up this issue internally & wont stop until something changes. Deaf & HOH people should have the same experience as everyone else!”
Reading everyone’s comments breaks my heart. I don’t know how much power I have but know, the next time I’m at Netflix I’m going to bring up this issue internally & wont stop until something changes. Deaf & HOH people should have the same experience as everyone else! #TypoFixed https://t.co/AQ4emvgUBv
— Karamo Brown (@Karamo) June 28, 2018
It’s not the first time that Brown has publicly vowed to support people with special hearing needs. He has expressed the importance of accessibility in interviews and back in April he posted a video to Twitter to tell his followers his videos would be featuring captions from that point forward.
“All of my friends with disabilities live this dual existence where they’re happy but there’s also a lot of things that are not accessible to them,” He said.
“So I am making a shift with myself. As you can see, I’ve downloaded an app that is converting my words into text. I’m doing it for my friends who are deaf or hard of hearing.”
#DearFriends, as a culture I’ve noticed we often don’t know how we can support ppl w/ disabilities. So I’m committing to making small changes in my life. U will now see my videos captioned for my deaf/ hard of hearing friends. I would love for u to post other ways we can support. pic.twitter.com/zHBRf69p8S
— Karamo Brown (@Karamo) April 16, 2018
“No, I’m not trying to imply that deaf people are disabled.” Brown continued.
“What I’m trying to say is, this is something that I’ve never thought about as I posted one million and one videos, so I’m trying to make a small shift in my life so I can support others.” Brown also encouraged his followers to make similar changes in their lives in an effort to bring about widespread progress.
The takeaway here – accessibility is too important to be overlooked, and Karamo Brown is an incredible human being who we should all model ourselves after.