International developments in accessible television technology

Transcript

22 November 2015

Roberta: The American Communications Commissioner, Tom Wheeler, has recently acknowledged that there is still work needed to make communications technology more accessible for people who are blind and vision impaired. Media Access Australia's Project Manager, Chris Mikul, discusses details of the FCC's plan for US consumers as well as developments from the UK and benefits of international initiatives for Australian consumers. Welcome, Chris.

Alex: Hello, Roberta.

Roberta: Firstly, can you explain what the FCC is?

Chris: Yes, the FCC is the Federal Communications Commission, so that's the communications regulator in the United States. The equivalent here is the ACMA, the Australian Communications Media Authority, but the FCC actually has more powers than the ACMA does here. So as well as doing what most communications regulators do, which is determine licence conditions for broadcasters and things like decide what they have to do in terms of audio description and captioning and so on. The FCC also has power over equipment manufacturers. Tom Wheeler has been the Chairman there for the last two years and to mark his second anniversary he has written a blog where he is setting out his priorities for the future and one of the two big ones will be making television and other media more accessible for the blind. Now, I have to say that the US is already way ahead of us and most other countries here in this. From December 2016, for example, all TV receivers will have to have talking menus and talking program guides. Wheeler wants to expand on that, though. So one of the things he is saying is he wants TV manufacturers to be very active in informing consumers about the accessibility features of their product. So that's important because if consumers don't know what these TV do then they won't buy them.

Roberta: Has there been any developments similar in the UK? So what's happening there?

Chris: Yes, well, the British regulator, Ofcom, is thinking along the same lines. It issued a consultation paper in July outlining changes it's proposing to make electronic program guides more accessible, so basically give them the text-to-speech function, and they will also need to clearly identify audio described programs and you will also be able to change the font size and the contrast on them. So that will make them a lot easier to read for people with vision impairment. Initially that will be restricted to set top boxes that record programs and have access to online content. So that's at the more expensive end of the TV equipment scale but the good thing is once this technology is in place it then tends to filter down to the cheaper equipment and eventually it will just be standard on every TV, I think in a few years' time, so that's all good.

Roberta: Now, do these overseas developments have any impact here in Australia?

Chris: Yes, they do in a general way. The more that governments overseas do for access, and especially the British and American governments, I suppose, the more pressure can be put on the government here to follow their example. Also what happens with equipment manufacturing in the UK is actually very important for us because a lot of the electronic equipment that is sold here has technology that originates in the UK. So that's why a lot of TVs on sale in Australia can receive audio description, even though we don't have a service on TV's yet in Australia. I've been bewailing that situation for a long time on this program. Even though we don't have it here there's a lot of TVs that can get it in Australia and that's because they have it in the UK.

Roberta: What's the situation with talking TVs in Australia at the moment?

Chris: There's one disappointing development. We've been getting a few phone calls about this at MAA. Basically the two talking set top boxes that were manufactured by Hills and Bush no longer are available. Listeners might remember that these were commissioned by the Federal Government a few years ago during the digital switchover period. As part of the transition program they were actually given away free to blind people but they were also on sale to the public for, I think it was $150. So they were quite cheap.

Roberta: I remember, yes.

Chris: Yeah, really good little boxes and sadly not enough bought them, I suppose, so they have discontinued production. So at the moment the only talking TVs that we know of that are available in Australia are models in the Panasonic Viera range. That's spelt V I E R A. So these have a talking function on them called Voice Guidance. But I would say to people before you go out and buy one of them get the sales person to just confirm that they do have the talking function on them because models change all the time. They probably won't know what you're talking about initially but if they get onto Panasonic just to make sure that it's got it before you buy them.

Roberta: Well, Chris, thank you for all of that today.

Chris: Thank you, Roberta.

Roberta: I've been speaking with Project Manager from Media Access Australia, Chris Mikul. We have been discussing the FCC. Now, for more information on audio description you can call Media Access Australia on 02 9212 6242 or email info@mediaaccess.org.au. Media Access Australia is a supporter of this program.

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