Entertainment

‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Star Apologizes To Deaf People For Saying ‘Listen Up’ [VIDEO]

Derek Hunter Contributor
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Chris Pratt issued a silent apology video to the hearing impaired because he said the words “listen up” and “turn up the volume” in an Instagram video that he has since deleted.

Some people, it seems, were offended by what they saw as a slight to those who can’t hear. He is now calling for Instagram to offer closed captioning on its videos.

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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

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The apology was not enough for some who took issue with some apparent mistakes Pratt made in his sign language.

A senior editor at UpWorthy found Pratt’s lesson one everyone should learn.

Still others thought there was no apology necessary.

Since Instagram does not offer closed captioning on their videos, it is not known how those who were offended by the original post knew to be offended.

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