NEW YORK, June 17 (Reuters)(CORRECTED) - An advocacy group for the deaf sued Netflix on Friday for not providing closed captioning on its streaming online television and movies.

The National Association of the Deaf, in a lawsuit filed in Massachusetts federal court, accused Netflix of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by not providing the deaf with equal access to its "watch instantly" digital video.

"While streaming (video) provides more access to entertainment to the general public, it threatens to be yet another barrier to people who are deaf and hard of hearing," the lawsuit said.

The suit said that Netflix provides captions on less than five percent of its streaming titles, despite repeated requests from the association dating back to 2009.

"We're aware of and sensitive to the concern," said Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey, adding that for several years the company has communicated its progress on the issue of closed captioning on its website.

In 2009, Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt reported on the Netflix blog that the company was facing technological difficulties with adding captions to streaming video. The advocacy group argued that captioning is technically possible, pointing to titles already captioned.

"For people who are deaf and hard of hearing, captions are like ramps for people who use wheelchairs," said the association's lawyer Arlene Mayerson in a statement.

The ADA requires that "places of entertainment" provide "full and equal enjoyment" for people with disabilities, the suit said. It accuses Netflix, the leading provider of on-demand video, of increasing the sense of isolation and stigma that people with hearing impairments suffer.

Netflix is not the only target of the deaf community. On Wednesday, the Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness (GLAD) and three individuals sued Time Warner Inc in California state court for refusing to caption its online news videos at CNN.com. Although many of the videos on CNN.com are accompanied by text, the script seldom matches the content of the video and is not a substitute for captioning, the suit said.

Time Warner and CNN did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Both lawsuits have requested injunctions requiring the companies to provide closed captions on all streaming video content.

The cases are National Association of the Deaf et al v. Netflix Inc, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, No. 11-30168; Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness Inc et al v. Time Warner Inc, California Superior Court, Alameda County, No. 11580682.

(Reporting by Terry Baynes)

An earlier version incorrectly reported that four, not three, individuals had joined the lawsuit against Time Warner.