Dear American Association of Retired Persons (Board of Trustees):

I am sending you this letter to make you aware of a political movement that has arisen within the Deaf Community of the United States called #captionTHIS. Its aim is to confront major media outlets about the lack of accessibility to online videos via internet captioning, and to work with them to resolve this issue. Deaf and hard-of-hearing people deserve the same internet accessibility that fully-hearing people enjoy.

A number of the members of the AARP may be deaf, hard of hearing, or may be coping with a progressive hearing loss. They may feel the same sense of frustration many in the Deaf community feel regarding the lack of accessibility to online videos—especially those produced by major media/news outlets.

Provided here is a link to an online captioned video explaining what the #captionThis movement is about, and what can be done about the issue. If you would like to promote awareness of this social media movement among the members of your organization, please do review the video and visit the #captionTHIS Facebook page. We would also appreciate it if you could make your Board of Trustees aware of this movement.

A link to the online “#captionTHIS” video is provided here.

A link to the #captionThis Facebook page is provided here.

Thank you for your time. If you have any questions about this movement or would like to know how the AARP can involve itself, please contact me at the email address used to send this letter to you.

Sincerely,

Christopher Jon Heuer, Ph.D.

[Author's Note: While I am not a member of the AARP myself, and while you may not be either, there is no reason the Deaf Community should have to fight this battle alone. Many people have age-related progressive hearing loss (as well as environmental-related progressive hearing loss), and it's a good bet quite a few of them are members of the AARP. If you wish to send them your own letter, their email address is: member@aarp.org (if you wish to use this letter as a template, don't forget to sign it and provide your own contact information).]