International policy and legislation

As people increasingly watch TV programs online, the opportunity arises for captions to be made more responsive to the needs of individual users. A new BBC white paper looks at some of the possibilities, which include users being able to vary font size and colour, along with many other enhancements.

In late May, Dr Scott Hollier travelled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to teach a web accessibility course to 22 students. As part of the assignment work, the students learnt how to use the basic functionality of screen readers and other Assistive Technology (AT). While the work went well, it quickly became apparent that there were a number of issues relating to the way in which Arabic was supported by the tools, and how those tools interacted with the web.

Labour MP Lillian Greenwood has submitted a private member’s bill to the House of Commons in support of Subtitle It!, a campaign to improve the accessibility of video-on-demand (VOD) services.

On 11 June 2015, the 1963 epic drama Al Nasser Saladin became the first Egyptian feature film to be screened with audio description for blind and vision impaired people.