Yaroslav Suris, a deaf man from Kings County, New York, has filed a class-action suit against three popular adult tube sites in a federal court in New York. The plaintiff claims he and other deaf and hearing impaired are denied enjoying the videos uploaded on the websites because of the lack of closed captioning.
Based on the document, Suris argues that the three sites have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The lack of closed captioning 'excludes the deaf and hard of hearing from the full and equal
participation on their Websites', the lawsuit claims.
The class-action suit claims that sites like Pornhub, YouPorn, and Redtube provide goods and services in the form of video content and the lack of closed captioning prevents hearing-impaired individuals from understanding videos. This means that the sites have denied deaf and hearing-impaired individuals from 'full and equal participation' on their websites.
The documents submitted on federal court stated that Yuris tried to watch videos such as 'Hot Step Aunt Babysits Disobedient Nephew,' 'Sexy Cop Gets Witness to Talk' and 'Daddy 4K -- Allison comes to Talk About Money to Her Boys' Naughty Father.' but was unable to fully enjoy them due to lack of text version of the spoken words. It also stated that he and other individuals concerned are willing to spend money on premium subscriptions if the content is more accessible for the deaf and hearing-impaired.
Corey Price, vice president of Pornhub, has already responded to the lawsuit. 'While we do not generally comment on active lawsuits, we’d like to take this opportunity to point out that we do have a closed captions category.', Price said in an interview.
In 2018, Price announced that the website added closed captioning to its top viewed videos. Closed captioning made the site's most popular videos to be more accessible for its users with deaf and hearing impairment and encourage them to check out the category and provide feedback.
The site has also launched a 'Descriptive Video' category that offers 'audio descriptions', enlarge texts, and keyboard shortcuts that makes the videos on the category more accessible for users with visual impairments.
Yuris, on behalf of other deaf and hearing-impaired individuals, is demanding the websites to make amendments. He is also seeking compensatory damages, fines, and civil penalties.
