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Chris Pratt says sorry to hearing-impaired fans for social media gaffe

Pratt... has said sorry to his hearing-impaired fans - Credit: Marvel/Disney
Pratt… has said sorry to his hearing-impaired fans – Credit: Marvel/Disney

Chris Pratt has said sorry to hearing-impaired fans, following what he called ‘a screw up’ he made on his Instagram page.

The ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ star posted a promo for the second instalment in the Marvel movie series, he advised his more than 11 million followers to ‘turn up the volume’ and not to just ‘read the subtitles’ that accompany the video.

However, he soon became aware that for some fans that’s not an option.

In a lengthy apology (you can check the whole thing below), he promised that he’d be ‘a little less ignorant’ about such things in the future.

“I realize now doing so was incredibly insensitive to the many folks out there who depend on subtitles,” he went on.

“More than 38 million Americans live with some sort of hearing disability. So I want to apologize.

“As always, I control my social media. Nobody else. And I am doing this because I’m actually really sorry. Apologies are powerful. I don’t dole them out Willy-Nilly. This is one of those moments where I screwed up and here’s me begging your pardon.”

Pratt recently issued another apology, after he implied that Hollywood doesn’t tell stories about ordinary ‘blue collar’ Americans.

He was soon handed rafts of evidence to the contrary, after which he posted on Twitter: “That was actually a pretty stupid thing to say. I’ll own that. There’s a ton of movies about blue collar America.”

‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ is out now.

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. (maybe because most people are watching those videos at work when they should be working and don't want to get caught. I know that's when I do it. ????) 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. 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. Thanks for pointing this out to me. In the future I'll try to be a little less ignorant about it. Now… I know some of you are going to say, "Hey! Chris only apologized because his publicist made him!" Well. That is not the case. As always I control my social media. Nobody else. And I am doing this because I'm actually really sorry. Apologies are powerful. I don't dole them out Willy-Nilly. This is one of those moments where I screwed up and here's me begging your pardon. I hope you accept my apology. And on that note. 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. 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

A post shared by chris pratt (@prattprattpratt) on May 4, 2017 at 5:59am PDT

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