#captionTHIS Advocacy Toolkit

A TweetKit for those new to the #captionTHIS [1] Movement

Written by Charity Sanders (@charsan14 [2])

The #captionTHIS movement is an important grassroots movement taking place now on Twitter. To learn more, check out this video [3] explaining the #captionTHIS campaign, created by Adam Jarashow (@sirLevis [4]) and Megan Malzkuhn (@megmalz [5]). There are also many blogs and vlogs about #captionTHIS being shared on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The goal of this TweetKit is to provide guidelines and suggestions to those new to Twitter, where most of the dialogue surrounding the #captionTHIS movement is taking place. The overall goal of the #captionTHIS campaign is to:

• Increase awareness about caption accessibility
• Recruit hearing, deaf, and hard of hearing members to get involved and share this with their friends and family members
• Make an Impact by increasing the number of signatures on Change.org [6], contacting companies and holding them accountable for not captioning their online content
• Educate and change attitudes by encouraging individuals, blogs, small organizations, and corporations to caption their videos

Here’s how you can get started: Set up a Twitter account [7]. Twitter is an ultra-simple social networking tool that you use to tweet messages that are under 140 characters.

@ means sending a tweet to someone. If you want to communicate with CBS, use Google or Twitter Search to find their Twitter feed: @CBS, for example.

# means a topic you are trending / following. Our movement is #captionTHIS. Include #captionTHIS in all your tweets.

Tweet example: @foodnetwork Captions aren't the icing on the cake, they ARE the cake. Caption all online video clips & programs not on TV now! #captionTHIS

RT means “Retweet” to your circle of Twitter followers. You can RT any message you like, or want to spread the word about.

Tweet example: For those who twitter- share the change.org [6] petition on FB: with enough signatures, great PR! http://chn.ge/NkkYET [8] #captionTHIS

The primary goals for your tweets should be to:

• Tell companies that they need to caption their videos
  • Contact companies and blogs directly to communicate that you want their content captioned. At the bottom of this TweetKit, there is a list to get you started. You can expand and contact your favorite youtube channel, blog, etc.
  • Tweet example: @hgtv [9] It's dangerous following non-captioned videos with power tools. Caption all HGTV online video clips & programs now!
• Spread the word- there’s power in numbers!
  • Contact your favorite blog or YouTube channel that DOES caption their videos and recognize them.
  • Tweet example: @femfreq [10] Thanks for making your videos captioned- share your experiences at #captionTHIS and inspire others to caption online video content!
  • Contact your favorite celebrities, politicians, friends, family members to spread the word.
  • Tweet example: @NayaRivera [11] Naya, work with us to make sure all #Glee online video content is captioned. Please RT if you'd like to see #captionTHIS happen!
• Get signatures for the Change.org petition
  • Spread the word about the Change.org petition- this is a very good way for #captionTHIS to get more publicity. Change.org petitions, with enough signatures, have a solid track record for making an impact.

Come join the #captionTHIS movement, and work towards making 100% captioned videos available online for all! Follow NAD at @NADTweets [12].