Chris Pratt apologized for offending hard of hearing fans after posting an Instagram video in which he requested that people turn up the volume. In a new video posted on Thursday, May 4, the Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 star said sorry by issuing a message via sign language .
“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 … 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,” Pratt wrote in the caption. “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.”
The actor went on to state that his apology wasn’t his publicist’s idea, but his own, and that he “screwed up” and was “begging your pardon.”
He also offered Instagram a suggestion: “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,” he concluded in the lengthy post. “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.”
