Media & Disability

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Guide on media & disability

Access to Programmes

Watching television can be very difficult for many viewers who are deaf or have partial hearing, and for viewers who are blind or partially sighted. The numbers of people with sight or hearing impairments is increasing as populations age, so a high percentage of your audience would welcome additional services, even if they do not consider themselves disabled. There are 3 types of access services that can make viewing both possible and enjoyable. These are:

• Audio Description
• Signing
• Sub-titling

Audio Description

Audio description is an additional narration that describes visual appearance and action, enabling blind or partially sighted people to enjoy visual art, TV, film, theatre or other live events.

The audio description is carefully interspersed around the soundtrack/main narrative so as not to interfere with dialogue. It is added on after the film is completed. This is easy in the case of DVDs, but for videos a separate audio described video needs to be produced.

Even if you are not involved in the audio description of your programme, it is good practice to think about the visually impaired members of your audience when putting the programme together. Try to avoid or minimise the use of captions on screen with no voice-over, and where possible ensure both subtitles and voice-over for foreign language contributors.

If you’ve never experienced audio description you can try it at:
www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/closep/audiodescription_guideto.shtml

Signing

Viewers who are Deaf or have partial hearing and who use Sign Language to communicate can access certain TV programmes in which a sign language interpreter appears on screen (usually in a box in part of the screen) and explains what is being said.

Sub-titling

Sub-titling is where the text of speech appears on the TV screen. This is commonly used for foreign language productions, but when provided for deaf and hearing impaired viewers sub-titles might also include a description of sound effects or brief details of music tracks.