MAKING TELEVISION A CCESSIBLE REPORT

DIGITAL INCLUSION M a k i n g TELEViSiOn a C C E S S i B L E Report N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 1 Telecommunication Development Sector Making Television Accessible November 2011 This report is published in cooperation with G3ict – The Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies, whose mission is to promote the ICT accessibility dispositions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities www.g3ict.org. ITU and G3ict also co-produce the e-accessibility Policy Toolkit for Persons with Disabilities www.e-accessibilitytoolkit.org and jointly organize awareness raising and capacity building programmes for policy makers and stakeholders involved in accessibility issues around the world. This report has been prepared by Peter Olaf Looms, Chairman ITU-T Focus Group on Audiovisual Media Accessibility.  ITU 2011 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, by any means whatsoever, without the prior written permission of ITU. Making Television Accessible Foreword Ensuring that all of the world’s population has access to television services is one of the targets set by world leaders in the World Summit on the Information Society. Television is important for enhancing national identity, providing an outlet for domestic media content and getting news and information to the public, which is especially critical in times of emergencies. Television programmes are also a principal source of news and information for illiterate segments of the population, some of whom are persons with disabilities. In addition, broadcasting can serve important educational purposes, by transmitting courses and other instructional material. While the availability of broadcasting in terms of coverage is nearly complete, with practically the whole planet covered by a TV signal, and with televisions in over 1.4 billion households around the world, representing 98 per cent of households in developed countries and nearly 73 per cent of households in developing countries, the question now is: How to make this widely available ICT accessible for persons with disabilities? Indeed, many of the 1 billion or so people who live with some form of disability are unable to enjoy the audiovisual content that comes to their homes. This is because either the content, information and/or devices necessary for them to access these services are not accessible for them. Yet, solutions exist today that can make it possible for them to fully enjoy television, and which can help them participate in so many more aspects of social and cultural activity. Accessible TV should be a fundamental tool in building inclusive societies. This report is written for decision-making professionals involved in introducing or scaling up measures to make television and other kinds of audiovisual content accessible to all. The emphasis of this report is on making digital media accessible. Television is going digital. I believe the migration from analogue to digital TV represents an ideal opportunity for ITU members to take the necessary steps to ensure TV is accessible. Moreover, more than 100 ITU Member States have now ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). As explained in this report, television accessibility is explicitly mentioned in the Convention. It requires ratifying countries to ensure that persons with disabilities enjoy access to television programmes in accessible formats. Spectrum is required for many of these access services, although the bandwidth required varies by service. This is especially so for terrestrial broadcasting services, which require spectrum availability, and to some extent for satellite broadcasting, where spectrum costs rather than availability is the issue. Here, too, ITU Member States have an opportunity to ensure that any spectrum needed is allocated for this purpose. Making TV accessible is everyone’s business. This report identifies accessibility solutions for media executives, regulators and policy makers, pay-TV operators, consumer electronics manufacturers, sales outlets as well as disabled persons organizations. It is my goal that this report will assist ITU members to take the necessary steps to ensure that persons with disabilities can enjoy their CRPD right to access TV. In line with the goals of universal design, making TV accessible can also improve literacy eradication (not only for persons with disabilities but for the non-educated, women and other marginalized groups), support the social inclusion of immigrant populations, and of course address the needs of increasingly aging populations who will also benefit from accessible TV. This report identifies the kinds of access services required by a range of persons with disabilities and the respective accessibility options. These include closed captioning and signing for the deaf, audio description and audio captions for the blind or those with visual impairments, and accessible remote control devices for the elderly and those with reduced dexterity. This report explains how access services are produced and delivered so that regulators and service providers can better understand the costs involved. It also identifies the need to make the target users aware of access services and provides a checklist for those implementing accessible TV. i ... - tailieumienphi.vn