Accessible TV

Captioning makes television accessible for the Deaf, and is available on free-to-air and subscription TV. Audio description, which makes television accessible for the blind, will be trialled in Australia in 2011. 

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  • Wednesday, 22 February 2012
     Television revealed for blind and vision impaired Australians

    The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) has just announced that Australia’s first audio description trial will be held on the ABC. The long-awaited announcement is a result of many years of advocacy by Media Access Australia and several disability organisations and is a step towards bringing Australia into line with international standards.

  • Thursday, 16 February 2012
     Proposed new Irish access rules provoke fierce criticism

    Controversy has erupted in Ireland over proposed changes to television access regulation. In December 2011, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) launched a consultation process on new rules it is proposing regarding the levels of captioning, audio description and Irish sign language which broadcasters must provide. In their submissions to the consultation, Ireland’s access advocacy groups have been highly critical of some of the proposed changes.

  • Friday, 3 February 2012
     SKY New Zealand launches captions

    On 1 February, New Zealand’s main subscription TV provider, SKY Television, introduced closed captioning on 13 of its channels: Animal Planet, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, TCM, TV1, TV2, TV3, Cartoon Network, and Crime & Investigation.

  • Tuesday, 31 January 2012
     Canadian access company modernises its brand

    Accessible Media, the not-for-profit organisation which operates The Accessible Channel, is rebranding all its media operations under the name AMI as part of a strategy of branching out into new media.

  • Monday, 30 January 2012
     American churches apply for caption exemptions

    Around 80 churches in the USA have filed new applications with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for an exemption from closed caption rules, following a change to the way the FCC treats these applications.

  • Monday, 23 January 2012
     World first: US legislates captioning online videos

    The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the USA has adopted a set of rules governing the closed captioning of TV programs that are distributed over the internet.

  • Friday, 6 January 2012
     Canada pioneers audio description methods

    A Canadian media company is changing the way television is made accessible for people who are blind or vision impaired. Accessible Media Inc (AMI), owner of The Accessible Channel, the world’s only channel on which all programs are captioned and audio described, has pioneered the audio description of live television events. AMI has also produced the first TV program where the audio description was integrated at the production stage.

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