Rikki Poynter

Last updated
Rikki Poynter
Rikki Poynter 2019.png
Poynter in 2019
Personal information
Born (1991-07-16) July 16, 1991 (age 32)
Kirchheimbolanden, Germany
NationalityNaturalized American, German
OccupationDeaf activist
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2010 – present
Genre(s)Lifestyle, vlogs, beauty, deaf, closed captioning
Subscribers91,300 [1]
(April 4, 2023)
Total views6.73 million [1]
(January 8, 2018)
Last updated: 25 Jan 2023

Rikki Poynter (born July 16, 1991 [2] ) is a deaf YouTuber and activist. She began as a beauty vlogger and is now a lifestyle vlogger with a focus on Deaf awareness, accessibility, and the importance of closed captioning. [2]

Contents

Background

Poynter was first diagnosed with hearing loss at age 11, genetically inherited from a deaf parent. [3] She describes her deafness as severe in her right ear and moderate to severe in her left ear. [4] She was raised orally under a German deaf mother and an American hearing father in a mainstream environment [5] and attended mainstream schools from K-12, which she described as difficult due to a lack of accommodation. [6] In her early 20s, Poynter became more involved in the Deaf community and began to learn American Sign Language (ASL) in 2015. [5]

YouTube channel

Poynter created her YouTube channel soon after high school when she started uploading makeup tutorials to her YouTube channel RikkiPoynter. [7] She continued creating beauty videos for the next four years, but then decided to use her platform to spread awareness on Deaf issues [8] because she wanted to create content that was beneficial and meaningful. [7]

In 2014, Poynter uploaded her first video speaking about her deafness. [9] She rebranded her YouTube channel, which now covers a variety of topics relating to Deaf culture, Deaf issues, closed captioning, and other lifestyle topics. [10] In her videos, Poynter shares her own personal stories about being Deaf. [11] Her videos are described as using humor and snark to highlight challenges facing the deaf/Deaf/Hard of Hearing (d/Deaf/HoH) community and to debunk misconceptions. [12]

Her YouTube channel currently has over 91 500 subscribers and a combined video view count of over 6.8 million across 608 videos. Her most popular video, "Sh*t Hearing People Say (Things You Don't Say to Deaf & Hard of Hearing)" has over 500 000 views. [13]

Through YouTube and social media, Poynter has been able to find a supportive community that has also helped push for Deaf rights and better closed captioning on YouTube. [7]

Activism

As an online activist, Poynter advocates for improved closed captioning on YouTube, raises awareness against audism, and speaks about challenges that face the d/Deaf/HoH community. [6] She also advocates for the inclusion of intersectionality- specifically in relation to Deafness and disability- in feminism. [6]

Closed captioning awareness

Poynter's main focus is to fight for a higher quantity and quality of closed captioning on YouTube videos. [6] According to Poynter, YouTube's automatically generated closed captions are often inaccurate, do not make sense in the context of the video, and/or contain profanity or inappropriate words. [14] Because of this, Poynter encourages YouTube creators to manually enter their own closed captions. [15]

In 2014, Poynter began making videos about this issue and advocating it on her social media platforms. [16] Her goals are to teach YouTubers about the importance of closed captions and to increase the number of creators that caption their content. [14] Her efforts include sending emails and handwritten letters to popular YouTube stars to tell them about the challenges of the lack of captions for the Deaf community on YouTube and to give information on how they can caption their videos. [8] She has also contacted YouTube itself regarding improving their automatic captioning system. [11]

Her efforts have attracted attention by mainstream media, including ABC News, BBC News, and Huffington Post. [14] It has also gotten the attention of high-profile YouTubers such as Laci Green, Tyler Oakley, and Tanya Burr. [11] In January 2015, Oakley released a video saying that he has captioned all of his videos and encouraged other YouTubers to do the same, citing Poynter and her video "Deaf Accessibility on YouTube" as one of the reasons he was motivated to do so. [14] Poynter states that although there is often a lack of response and action from those that she has contacted, [11] Closed captioning awareness is improving. [17]

In September 2016, Poynter launched the #NoMoreCraptions campaign to fight against poor closed captioning, including ones that are positioned incorrectly, that lack proper grammar and punctuation, and that include unnecessary comments and/or jokes. [7] The video and campaign explained how to caption videos with Federal Communications Commission guidelines, called on viewers to contact YouTubers they watch to improve or include captions, and invited other YouTubers to make their own #NoMoreCraptions videos. [7] Two days after the campaign began, there were 47 #NoMoreCraptions videos made by other YouTubers in support of the initiative. [16]

Deaf Poynters

Poynter created a website called 'Deaf Poynters Archived 2017-03-14 at the Wayback Machine ', which is focused on spreading Deaf awareness and advocating for Deaf rights. The website offers information on Deaf culture through articles written by the d/Deaf/HoH community, including personal stories. [18] Other articles posted to the site include history and facts to educate those that are unfamiliar with the background of deafness. [18]

The Deaf Poynters website sells merchandise, including stickers, pins, buttons, and prints that include Rikki's commonly used hashtags and slogans such as, #deaftalent, #nomorecraptions, and "Do I look deaf now?". Through the Deaf Poynters website, viewers have the opportunity to donate to Rikki through platforms including, Patreon, and Amazon Wishlist. [18]

Public engagements

In addition to online advocacy, Poynter speaks about Deaf issues and closed captioning at events. At VidCon 2015, Poynter led a workshop called "Lights, Camera, Caption!" for creators to learn about Deaf culture, the importance of closed captioning, and how to do caption content. [6] In 2016, she led the workshop again, and also participated on the panel Disabilities on YouTube. [19] At Buffer Festival, she was part of the Science and Education panel in 2015, and the Women on YouTube panel in 2016. [20] In 2015, Poynter also gave a talk at Lycoming College about accessibility and deaf issues such as captioning, sign language access and police brutality. [21]

Other involvement

Poynter formerly wrote articles for DTV News, a news channel with accessible content for the d/Deaf/HoH community. [6]

She is the social media specialist and blogger for Deaf Women in Film, a resource that supports deaf women in the film industry. [22]

Poynter also actively supports movements such as #DeafTalent, which aims to acknowledge Deaf individuals working in the media industry and stop the trend of casting hearing actors in Deaf roles. [23]

She also contributes video content to Ai-Media, a service that provides access to the world's content through live captioning, closed captions, transcripts and audio description. [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Closed captioning</span> Process of displaying interpretive texts to screens

Closed captioning (CC) and subtitling are both processes of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information. Both are typically used as a transcription of the audio portion of a program as it occurs, sometimes including descriptions of non-speech elements. Other uses have included providing a textual alternative language translation of a presentation's primary audio language that is usually burned-in to the video and unselectable.

A vlog, also known as a video blog or video log, is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one take or cut into multiple parts. Unlike more generic video diary, vlogs are often recorded as a selfie.

Audism as described by deaf activists is a form of discrimination directed against deaf people, which may include those diagnosed as deaf from birth, or otherwise. Tom L. Humphries coined the term in his doctoral dissertation in 1975, but it did not start to catch on until Harlan Lane used it in his writing. Humphries originally applied audism to individual attitudes and practices; whereas Lane broadened the term to include oppression of deaf people.

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is an organization for the promotion of the rights of deaf people in the United States. NAD was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1880 as a non-profit organization run by Deaf people to advocate for deaf rights, its first president being Robert P. McGregor of Ohio. It includes associations from all 50 states and Washington, DC, and is the US member of the World Federation of the Deaf, which has over 120 national associations of Deaf people as members. It has its headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subtitles</span> Textual representation of events and speech in motion imagery

Subtitles are text representing the contents of the audio in a film, television show, opera or other audiovisual media. Subtitles might provide a transcription or translation of spoken dialogue. Although naming conventions can vary, captions are subtitles that include written descriptions of other elements of the audio like music or sound effects. Captions are thus especially helpful to people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Subtitles may also add information that is not present in the audio. Localizing subtitles provide cultural context to viewers. For example, a subtitle could be used to explain to an audience unfamiliar with sake that it is a type of Japanese wine. Lastly, subtitles are sometimes used for humor, as in Annie Hall, where subtitles show the characters' inner thoughts, which contradict what they were saying in the audio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laci Green</span> American YouTuber

Laci Green is an American YouTuber. Her content focuses on sex education; Green also hosted Braless, the first MTV YouTube channel, as part of a 12-week deal with MTV. The first episode aired November 4, 2014. In 2016, Time named her one of the 30 most influential people on the Internet. In 2017, she celebrated her tenth anniversary on YouTube.

Assistive Technology for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is technology built to assist those who are deaf or suffer from hearing loss. Examples of such technology include hearing aids, video relay services, tactile devices, alerting devices and technology for supporting communication.

A beauty YouTuber is an individual who creates content for YouTube, publishing videos in the realm of cosmetics, fashion, hairstyling, and nail art. In 2016, there were more than 5.3 million beauty videos on YouTube, with 86% of the top 200 beauty videos created by individual beauty vloggers, as opposed to marketers using the platform to promote cosmetic brands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LaToya Forever</span> Canadian YouTube personality

LaToya Howard, better known under the name LaToya Forever, is a Canadian YouTube personality and author, best known for her eponymous YouTube channel as well as her video blog channel "LaToya's Life". In 2012, she was the official Vibe TV host at the American Music Awards and in 2015 and 2017 she participated in the Buffer Festival. Her self-named main channel on YouTube has more than 1 million subscribers with more than 125 million views. Her debut book, an autobiography titled "LaToya's Life: Uncut Mishaps of a YouTube Star", was released on November 8, 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amanda Steele</span> American internet personality

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References

  1. 1 2 "About user/rikkipoynter/about". YouTube.
  2. 1 2 "ABOUT". RIKKI POYNTER. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  3. ↑ "Rikki Poynter". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  4. ↑ Rikki Poynter (2016-08-11), What I Can and Can't Hear , retrieved 2017-03-07
  5. 1 2 Rikki Poynter (2016-09-12), From Being An Oral Deaf Adult To Using ASL , retrieved 2017-03-07
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Meet Rikki Poynter: Deaf YouTuber, feminist and social activist". The Tab US. 2016-06-01. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Rikki Poynter | Digitally Connected". www.digitallyconnected.org. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  8. 1 2 Hawkins, Kathleen (2015-02-02). "The new breed of 'vloggers' here to challenge people". BBC News. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  9. ↑ Rikki Poynter (2014-10-01), Q&A: Deaf Awareness Week | closed captioned , retrieved 2017-03-07
  10. ↑ Matthews, Cate (2014-10-06). "This Beauty Vlogger Is Hard Of Hearing, And She's Stepping Up Her Game On YouTube". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "YouTube: We know automatic subtitles aren't good enough" . Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  12. ↑ Mic. "Sh*t People Need to Stop Saying to Deaf and Hard of Hearing People Immediately". Mic. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  13. ↑ "Rikki Poynter". YouTube. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  14. 1 2 3 4 "#WCW Rikki Poynter is Fighting for 'No More Craptions'". The Daily Dot. 2016-10-12. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  15. ↑ "What Hard-of-Hearing YouTube Star Wants People to Know". ABC News. 2015-02-07. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  16. 1 2 "Rikki Poynter". YouTube. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  17. ↑ "Come on over to the deaf side: An Interview with Rikki Poynter - silent grapevine". silent grapevine. 2014-11-19. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  18. 1 2 3 "ARTICLES". Deaf Poynters. Archived from the original on 2017-03-14. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  19. ↑ Paul Roth (2016-06-23), #VidCon2016 - Disabilities on YouTube (Creator) | recorded by @paulidin , retrieved 2017-03-14
  20. ↑ "Buffer Festival 2016: Women of YouTube". St Lawrence Centre. 2016-09-19. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  21. ↑ "Lycoming College to host deaf rights activist". Lycoming College. Archived from the original on 2017-05-11. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  22. ↑ "DEAF WOMEN IN FILM". dwif.blogspot.ca. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  23. ↑ Rikki Poynter (2015-02-03), Hollywood, Stop Hiring Hearing Actors For Deaf Roles! #DEAFTALENT , retrieved 2017-03-07
  24. ↑ "Ai-Media". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
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