Netflix and ASL Company SignUp Media Are Making Hundreds of Hours of Kids Programming More Accessible
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- Netflix is adding ASL interpretations to roughly 200 hours of Kids & Family content covering 73 titles across 41 franchises, including originals like Pinocchio, The Sea Beast, and Stranger Things: Tales From '85, plus licensed titles such as Pokémon Horizons and CoComelon.
- SignUp Media delivers its ASL interpretations through a Google Chrome browser plug-in rather than as integrated titles, letting users pop the interpreter into a resizable, movable window — a design choice that distinguishes it from HBO Max's standalone ASL releases.
- SignUp Media produced all 200 hours of Netflix interpretations in just two months using a team of more than a dozen performers, with each on-screen hour requiring three to four hours of preparation including character research and tone analysis.
- SignUp Media cites research showing 466 million Deaf people worldwide, with 75% of Deaf adults reading at a 4th–5th grade level and Deaf children not reading fluently until age 12–13 — a gap captions alone cannot close.
- Founder Mariella Satow launched SignUp in 2021 at age 17 during a gap year before Stanford; co-CEO Harriet Seitler previously spent 20 years as Oprah's head of marketing, and the company has since raised a $1 million angel round with 25,000 monthly active users.
- SignUp Media currently offers more than 350 hours of interpreted content in ASL, BSL, and ISL and plans to expand from its browser plug-in to TVs and mobile, and eventually to trailers.
- Netflix's Elisa Beniero framed the deal as adding ASL alongside subtitles, SDH, dubbing, and audio description, while SignUp co-CEO Seitler positioned sign language as 'a language; it's not an accommodation.'
Why it matters: This is SignUp Media's first direct streamer partnership, validating its browser-plug-in model and putting Netflix ahead of peers in offering ASL alongside standard accessibility tracks. The two-month turnaround on 200 hours of high-fidelity interpretation — including Pokémon name signs and character-matched casting — sets a new operational bar that competing streamers will be measured against. For the 466 million Deaf people worldwide, captions have long been an insufficient workaround; this deal reframes sign language as core infrastructure, not an accommodation.
