Suit demands CNN offer online captions for deaf

As increasing numbers of Americans get their news online, the owner of CNN.com was accused in an Alameda County lawsuit of discriminating against the hard-of-hearing by failing to provide closed captions for videos posted on the Internet.

CNN's refusal to offer computer users the captions it provides to its television audience "excludes Californians who are deaf or hard of hearing from a wealth of critical information regarding current events," said the suit, a proposed class action in Superior Court on behalf of the state's hearing-impaired residents. More than 100,000 Californians are functionally deaf, lawyers said. They said the suit is the first in the nation to seek equal treatment for the deaf from a commercial content provider on the Internet. The refusal of Time Warner, CNN's owner, to offer closed captions is "astounding, given how central the Internet is in today's communication environment," said attorney Anna Levine of Disability Rights Advocates.