Rikki Poynter
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Rikki Poynter (born July 16, 1991) is a
deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
r and
activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...
. She began as a
beauty vlogger A beauty YouTuber is an individual who creates content for YouTube, publishing videos in the realm of cosmetics, fashion industry, fashion, Hairstyle, hairstyling, and nail art. In 2016, there were more than 5.3 million beauty videos on YouTube, wit ...
and is now a lifestyle
vlogger 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 (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one ta ...
with a focus on
Deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...
awareness, accessibility, and the importance of
closed captioning Closed captioning (CC) is the process of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information, where the viewer is given the choice of whether the text is displayed. Closed cap ...
.


Background

Poynter was first diagnosed with hearing loss at age 11, genetically inherited from a deaf parent. She describes her deafness as severe in her right ear and moderate to severe in her left ear. She was raised orally under a German deaf mother and an American hearing father in a mainstream environment and attended mainstream schools from K-12, which she described as difficult due to a lack of accommodation. In her early 20s, Poynter became more involved in the Deaf community and began to learn
American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that i ...
(ASL) in 2015.


YouTube channel

Poynter created her YouTube channel soon after high school when she started uploading makeup tutorials to her YouTube channe
RikkiPoynter
She continued creating beauty videos for the next four years, but then decided to use her platform to spread awareness on Deaf issues because she wanted to create content that was beneficial and meaningful. In 2014, Poynter uploaded her first video speaking about her deafness. She rebranded her YouTube channel, which now covers a variety of topics relating to Deaf culture, Deaf issues, closed captioning, and other lifestyle topics. In her videos, Poynter shares her own personal stories about being Deaf. 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. 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. 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.


Activism

As an online activist, Poynter advocates for improved closed captioning on YouTube, raises awareness against
audism 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 an unpublished manuscript in 1975, which he ...
, and speaks about challenges that face the d/Deaf/HoH community. She also advocates for the inclusion of
intersectionality Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these intersecting and overlapping factor ...
- specifically in relation to Deafness and disability- in feminism.


Closed captioning awareness

Poynter's main focus is to fight for a higher quantity and quality of closed captioning on YouTube videos. 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. Because of this, Poynter encourages YouTube creators to manually enter their own closed captions. In 2014, Poynter began making videos about this issue and advocating it on her social media platforms. Her goals are to teach YouTubers about the importance of closed captions and to increase the number of creators that caption their content. 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. She has also contacted YouTube itself regarding improving their automatic captioning system. Her efforts have attracted attention by mainstream media, including
ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...
,
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
, and
Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...
. It has also gotten the attention of high-profile YouTubers such as
Laci Green Laci Green ( ) (born Valacia Nusheen Cyrus on October 18, 1989), is an American clinical mental health counselor and former YouTuber. Her content focuses on sex education; Green also hosted ''Braless'', the first MTV YouTube channel, as part of ...
,
Tyler Oakley Mathew Tyler Oakley (born March 22, 1989) is an American YouTuber, actor, activist, author, television personality and Twitch streamer. Much of Oakley's activism has been dedicated to LGBTQ youth, LGBTQ rights, as well as social issues including ...
, and
Tanya Burr Tanya Burr (born 9 June 1989) is an English YouTuber and actress who began posting makeup and fashion videos to her YouTube channel in 2009. In 2017, Burr began pursuing a career in acting and has since had guest roles in series such as '' Bul ...
. 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. Poynter states that although there is often a lack of response and action from those that she has contacted, Closed captioning awareness is improving. 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. The video and campaign explained how to caption videos with
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
guidelines, called on viewers to contact YouTubers they watch to improve or include captions, and invited other YouTubers to make their own #NoMoreCraptions videos. Two days after the campaign began, there were 47 #NoMoreCraptions videos made by other YouTubers in support of the initiative.


''Deaf Poynters''

Poynter created a website called
Deaf Poynters
', 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. Other articles posted to the site include history and facts to educate those that are unfamiliar with the background of deafness. 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.


Public engagements

In addition to online advocacy, Poynter speaks about Deaf issues and closed captioning at events. At
VidCon VidCon is an annual convention for influencers, fans, executives, and online brands. The event primarily features prominent video stars from across the internet. It was founded by veteran YouTube creators John and Hank Green ( Vlogbrothers), a ...
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. In 2016, she led the workshop again, and also participated on the panel Disabilities on YouTube. At Buffer Festival, she was part of the Science and Education panel in 2015, and the Women on YouTube panel in 2016. In 2015, Poynter also gave a talk at
Lycoming College Lycoming College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1812, Lycoming College is affiliated with the United Methodist Church but operates as an ind ...
about accessibility and deaf issues such as captioning, sign language access and police brutality.


Other involvement

Poynter formerly wrote articles for DTV News, a news channel with accessible content for the d/Deaf/HoH community. She is the social media specialist and blogger for Deaf Women in Film, a resource that supports deaf women in the film industry. 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. 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.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poynter, Rikki Deaf activists Living people 1991 births American deaf people People from Charlotte, North Carolina Lifestyle YouTubers YouTubers from North Carolina People from Kirchheimbolanden YouTubers with disabilities