ABC iview audio description trial: September update

Transcript

20 September 2015

Roberta: Media Access Australia Project Manager, Chris Mikul, is here today to give us an update on the audio description trial that is currently taking place on the ABC's iview service. Welcome, Chris.

Chris: Hello, Roberta.

Roberta: For people who may not know about it, what is the iview trial?

Chris: Okay, so first of all, the iview is the ABC's catch-up TV service, available over the internet. So basically most of the popular ABC programs, shortly after they are broadcast on TV, they are put up on iview and people can watch them on their smart phones and on their PCs and so on. So the audio description trial that's going on at the moment, it's an initiative of the Department of Communications and it began in April. So it's going for 15 months and then in June next year and during that time two hours of audio described programs will be added to iview every day. Now, as listeners might know, there have been negotiations going on for quite a while about getting audio description on broadcast TV and we still hope that is going to happen but in the meantime this trial is a really good initiative because audio description on catch-up TV services is still pretty rare around the world and more people are watching TV online now. So it's a good thing to do.

Roberta: So how has the trial been going so far, Chris?

Chris: In terms of the range of programs available and the quality of the audio description it's been going very well and it's also been very popular. In the first two and a half months, so up until the end of June, over 20,000 programs were played on iview with the audio description turned on. So I think that's pretty fantastic result. That is also considering one thing that's hampered the trial a little bit, which is at the moment it's only available on iPhone, iPads and Android phones but not on desktops, so not on PCs and Macs and so on. So that's limited the number of people who can actually hear it, which to me means that the 20,000 figure is even more impressive. Now, it was supposed to be extended to desktops in September, so this month. They have had a few little technical problems with it, though, so that's now scheduled for October.

Roberta: Will that be early October?

Chris: I don't know. I spoke to them yesterday and they couldn't give me an exact date. These things happen. It is a trial, after all.

Roberta: Of course, yes. So, Chris, what programs are being described during the trial?

Chris: So there's been quite a long list. I won't read them all out but some of the ones that are showing this month, let's see, there's a new Australian comedy, Sammy J and Randy in Ricketts Lane, Utopia, which is my favourite show on the ABC at the moment, I must say, How Not to Behave and The IT Crowd. The dramas include Doctor Who, New Tricks, Humans, Last Tango in Halifax, Old School and Vera. In documentaries you have got Australian Story and 911 The Lost Hero and there's also a couple of kids programs, Charlie and Lola and Octonauts. So a really good range of stuff, both Australian and British and, yeah, some of the description is done here and some of it they have imported from Britain.

Roberta: So if people want to hear the described programs, what do they need to do?

Chris: Okay, so as I said, it's only available on iPhone, iPad and Android phone at the moment. So if people want to hear it on those, what they will need to do is make sure they have the latest version of the iview app downloaded. Once you have got that you just go into iview, go the programs A to Z section and that will then bring up a list of programs with audio description.

Roberta: And of course the times that they are on.

Chris: Yes, that's right, and as soon as it's extended to desktops, again, just go to the iview website and go to the A to Z section. Also if people want to find out more there is an audio description FAQ on the ABC iview website and that gives you a phone number to ring for an AD helpline as well.

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

Chris: It's a pleasure.

Roberta: For more helpful information on TV and video accessibility you can call Media Access Australia on 02 9212 6242 or email info@mediaacess.org.au. I have been speaking with Media Access Australia Project Manager, Chris Mikul, who gave us an update on the audio description trial currently taking place on the ABC's iview service. Media Access Australia is a supporter of this program.

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