As the nation moves ever closer to the digital television transition in February of 2009, television and Internet, products and programming are increasingly reliant on visual information to communicate with consumers. Products are created that utilize on-screen menus, and in programming, significant events are portrayed visually: emergency weather advisories are scrolled across screens, and telephone numbers are displayed on television screens unaccompanied by verbalization. People who are blind, or have visual impairments, are thereby denied access to a significant portion of the vast array of communications services available today. In the following paper, we will describe the challenges blind and visually impaired individuals are currently experiencing in an increasingly digital world and the necessity for legislation to rectify these problems.
Television plays a critical role in our society as a vital source of news, information, local and community affairs, education, and entertainment. Video description is where a narrator describes visual elements of a program during the natural pauses that occur in dialogue to let a person who cannot see the screen know what is happening. The nation has a compelling public interest in furthering the safety, security and well-being of people who are blind and visually impaired by ensuring, to the fullest extent made possible by technology, equal access to the television medium.
Today, there exist many levels of on-screen menus and complicated program guides for operating various video programming devices (DVD players, televisions, cable boxes, TiVo, etc.). Unfortunately, access to these interfaces is poor to non-existent for individuals with visual impairments. Such complicated navigational tools and remotes are new barriers to old delivery mechanisms.
In addition to old delivery mechanisms, we are seeing new technologies and new devices that carry video programming. Programming that was once viewable on television is now available over the Internet and on IP-enabled and wireless devices. However, access to that programming and the use of options such as video description and closed captioning is poor at best.
It is critical that emergency information is provided in a manner that allows access for individuals with sensory disabilities. Emergency information provided visually must be described in the program’s main audio track. More and more, critical information is scrolled or crawled across the screen with no accompanying audio information.
On December 21, 2007, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), along with the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, publicly released the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act discussion draft. This draft legislation was made a reality by the active participation of ACB through its steering committee membership in the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT). ACB is encouraging Congress to formally introduce the legislation which will address, in the following sections, our concerns.
Closed-Captioning Decoder and Video Description Capability. Sec. 201 –– This section expands the scope of devices that must display closed captions under the Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990 from the present requirement of television sets with screens that are 13 inches or larger, to all video devices that receive or display video programming transmitted simultaneously with sound, including those that can receive or display programming carried over the Internet. The section also requires these devices to be able to transmit and deliver video descriptions. Video description is the provision of verbal descriptions of the on-screen visual elements of a show provided during natural pauses in dialogue.
Video Description and Closed Captioning. Sec. 202 – This section reinstates the FCC’s modest regulations on video description. Those rules, originally promulgated in 2001, were struck down by a U.S. Court of Appeals for lack of FCC authority. This section also authorizes the FCC to promulgate additional rules to (1) ensure that video description services can be transmitted and provided over digital TV technologies, (2) ensure that digital TV equipment can make available the delivery and use of video description, (3) require non-visual access to on-screen emergency warnings and similar televised information, and (4) increase the amount of video description required. Finally, this section adds a definition for video programming to include programming distributed over the Internet to make clear that the existing closed captioning obligations (and future video description obligations) contained in Section 713 apply to video programming that is distributed or re-distributed over the Internet. This section is intended to ensure the continued accessibility of video programming to Americans with disabilities, as this programming migrates to the Internet.
User Interfaces. Sec. 203 – This section requires devices used to receive or display video programming, including devices used to receive and display Internet-based video programming, to be accessible by people with disabilities so that such individuals are able to access all functions of such devices (such as turning these devices on and off, controlling volume and selecting programming). The section contains requirements for (1) audio output where on-screen text menus are used to control video programming functions, and (2) a conspicuous means of accessing closed captioning and video description, including a button on remote controls and first-level access to these accessibility features when made available through on-screen menus.
Access Video Programming Guides and Menus. Sec. 204 – This section requires multi-channel video programming distributors to make their navigational programming guides accessible to people who cannot read the visual display, so that these individuals can make program selections.
ACB strongly urges the House of Representatives to formally introduce the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act discussion draft.
Please share with members of both the House and Senate the recommendations outlined above and how these changes will impact your life. Please urge them to be a sponsor or co-sponsor of this legislation. If a member of Congress is interested in sponsoring this legislation, please advise the ACB national office of their interest so that staff can make a follow-up contact.