As a deaf American, I am happy this is happening. It makes Netflix useful, and I'd like to see it expand to all online video. What excuse do CNN or Fox news online have NOT to captioning the video on their websites? Not a single one.
As an American businessman, I can understand what a collosal pain in the ass it is for business... but it's not the fault of ME or any other deaf person that Netflix chose to ignore us.
Would you use Netflix if all the movies and shows had no sound? Course not. There's no excuse not to have closed captioning, not from a technical stand point at least. Almost all original video has captioning enclosed nowadays. ALL broadcasts in the US are required to have closed captioning. Claiming they don't have access to the captioning is horse feces.
The bigger issue is the LICENSING costs, I believe. Captioning is often treated as a separate performance from the primary material. This, I believe, its also horse feces. Is the sound a separate performance from the video? No, it goes together to produce the performance.
I'd also like to see it expanded to the movie theaters, where a deaf person is often treated like a fool for asking if a movie has captioning... and having to seek out 2nd or 3rd run options, when there is plentiful technology to present this without issues (Rear Window, specifically) with other movie goers.
Again, I understand this costs money, but... if you did it in the first place, it wouldn't be an issue, would it? Or should be all be watching silent movies still?