Chris is Deaf and works at Aotearoa’s national school for deaf and hard-of-hearing children. He is an active member of the Deaf community, lives in Tāmaki Makaurau with his family, is deeply passionate about captions and has been using them for many years, particularly to watch sports – another huge passion of his.

Read, watch, or listen to his story below.

 

My name is Chris, I was born Deaf and and I have a cochlear implant. Back in 1995, there were only 2 programmes that were captioned, which meant that the choice of what I watched was decided for me. Things are more accessible now with TV and sports, which means there are now more choices for me.

 

I’ve always played sports throughout my school years, and when I got older and more involved with the Deaf community, I played sports like football, cricket, and rugby. On TV, sports is quite visual which means I can see what’s happening – but now with captions, it means that when the TMO referee says something, I know what they’re talking about. It means I can understand more of what’s going on compared to before without captions. When the referees are talking, because the game is visual, it’s fine. But when the referee talks to the captain or TMO referee about what’s going on in the game, it adds a more interesting side to the game. It’s good to understand that – and having captions definitely helps with understanding what’s going on.

Chris was also featured on Three’s The Project when Discovery launched captions for their shows, stating that “With captions, I can watch and follow what’s happening on screen and fully understand it. Particularly if I’m watching alongside someone who’s hearing, it means we’re equals and can have a conversation about what’s happening on TV. I’m really excited. I’ve looked at the Project for a long time and thought it was interesting. But now that there are captions, I can fully understand what’s being talked about on The Project which is fantastic.”

Next in the journal:

A young man with blonde hair smiles at the camera. He is sitting by a microphone.

Audio description levels the playing field and brings people together, research shows

Earlier this year, we set out to find out more about audio description in Aotearoa. How many people…

The Earcatch logo, a yellow 'E' on a dark blue background.

On-demand audio description app Earcatch winds up, but will continue to be available in Aotearoa

Able launched Earcatch in Aotearoa a year ago – a New Zealand-based library of audio description (AD) made…

A graphic image of an old-school TV with a scene of Pulp Fiction on it.

Blind people watch TV too

Audio description comes as standard on shows streaming on Netflix and other international services. So, Able Chief Executive…

Dan Buckingham, Jai Waite and Rachale Davis are on a stage together. Dan has brown hair, a white button-up shirt and is using a wheelchair, turned away from the camera. Jai is wearing a blue button-up top, using a wheelchair, and is in the middle of speaking. Rachale has blonde shoulder-length hair and a yellow top, looking over at Jai.

Navigating authentic representation of disability

During the annual SPADA conference this year, our CEO Dan Buckingham facilitated a panel with Jai Waite from…

Picture of Virginia Philp (who was part of AD's inception) smiling. She has shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes.

Decade of Able: Virginia Philp, team leader, audio describers

Virginia Philp leads our small crew of audio describers. She overseas everything audio description: recruiting, training and managing…

David wears glasses and a hearing aid, and smiles.

Decade of Able: David Kent, trustee

David Kent is a trustee on the Able board. Since 2005, David has chaired the Southern Hearing Charitable…