In a recent video on social media, mega-celebrity Chris Pratt made what seemed like a reasonable request.
The “Guardians of the Galaxy” star asked his fans scrolling through their feed to turn up the volume and listen instead of, as he put it, “just reading the subtitles.”
In doing so, he unintentionally alienated a ton of fans who depend on those very subtitles.
Almost 38 million adults living in America have some form of hearing loss, and implying that a subtitled video was somehow a lesser experience was, well, a bit insulting.
So Pratt took to Instagram to issue a powerful and heartfelt apology.
“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,” he wrote.
“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.”
In addition to his writing, Pratt used his hands to apologize in the 100% silent video.
His willingness to reach out and make amends sparked an outpouring of support for the actor.
Though a few commenters noticed his signing wasn’t completely accurate (though not bad for a newbie), hundreds of comments poured in to thank Pratt for taking the time to better educate himself.
Read more: www.upworthy.com
