Hearing-impaired fan suing OSU
A lawsuit filed against The Ohio State University states that captions are needed on the scoreboard. (Matt Barker Photo)
According to Tom Knox of The Columbus Dispatch, a 32-year old hearing-impaired fan filed a lawsuit against The Ohio State University on June 30, claiming that there needs to be captions on the stadium and arena scoreboards for football and basketball games.
Huh? I don’t want to sound insensitive to those with disabilities, but when is enough, enough? Another frivolous lawsuit that wastes more time and money.
In the article, Marc Charmatz, a lawyer with the National Association of the Deaf, states that:
“The PA announcer says, ‘Wells carries the ball for 4 yards and is tackled by Jones.’ The PA announcer says something to that effect after every play. These are part of the game. And when a deaf person’s sitting in the stands, they’re not getting that part. They’re just not.”
I have been to hundreds of games over the years at Ohio Stadium, and it seems that half of the time I can’t hear the public address announcer anyway. It’s called watching the game.
Sure, with the latest technology, the scoreboards and ribbon boards can accommodate this request, but is a lawsuit really necessary?
Three years ago, this same group filed suit against the Washington Redskins and FedEx Field. Shortly after that, the Redskins began running close-captioning on their video boards.
In 2008, a federal judge took it above and beyond the initial request and ruled that not only do the Redskins have to continue to run the captioned play-by-play on the scoreboard, but FedEx Field also has to show the lyrics of songs played in the stadium to offer deaf and hard-of-hearing fans the full game experience.
Are you kidding me?
In a related article written by Rick Armon of the Akron Beacon Journal, the suit seeks captioning for everything from referee calls to song lyrics. It also seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory damages.
Compensatory damages? There’s a true fan. He’s better off staying at home and watching the game on his TV, which I am sure has closed-captioning.
