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Chris Pratt Apologizes in Sign Language for Offending Those With Hearing Disabilities

"In the future I'll try to be a little less ignorant about it"

Chris Pratt took to Instagram Thursday to apologize in sign language for what some believe were insensitive comments.

Pratt shared a video in which he requested people listen with high volume instead of reading subtitles, leading many to criticize the "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2" star for not being sensitive to those with hearing disabilities.

Shortly after Pratt issued the new video on Instagram apologizing for his mistake. He also included a lengthy and heartfelt caption explaining the situation.

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"Instagram does this thing where it mutes all the videos it shows and forces you to turn on the volume in order to hear them. (maybe because most people are watching those videos at work when they should be working and don't want to get caught. I know that's when I do it.)

So when I made a video recently with subtitles, and requested that people turn up the volume and not just 'read the subtitles' it was so people wouldn't scroll past the video on mute, thus watching and digesting the information in the video," he wrote.

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He added that his caption was insensitive to those who depend on subtitles, and cited statistics on the number of Americans with hearing disabilities.  

"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. 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."

For all the people who might think his apology is disingenuous, he has a message for that, too.

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"Now... I know some of you are going to say, 'Hey! Chris only apologized because his publicist made him!' Well. That is not the case. As always I control my social media. Nobody else. And I am doing this because I'm actually really sorry. Apologies are powerful. I don't dole them out Willy-Nilly. This is one of those moments where I screwed up and here's me begging your pardon. I hope you accept my apology."

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