Speaking on the video, Get the Picture – making television easier for people with a sight loss (below), audio description user James Risdon says that the service “is absolutely fantastic for someone like myself who hasn’t got enough sight to see what’s happening on screen”.
Currently, 69 channels in the UK must deliver a minimum of 10% of their programs with audio description, while the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky have voluntarily committed to 20%. In Australia, audio description was successfully trialled on ABC1 last year, and there is a campaign under way to have an ongoing trial of this essential service.
The video looks at talking TVs and set-top boxes which read out menus and on-screen text, including the new range of Panasonic Viera smart TVs which were released in the UK last year and are now available in Australia. Alex Varley, CEO of Media Access Australia, also discusses the Hills and Bush talking set-top boxes which have been available in Australia since 2011.
While all these advances are to be applauded, the video makes the point that blind organisations, industry and government need to keep working together to ensure that features like audio description and text-to-speech become standard on all equipment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHk-70udvvU
View this video with closed captions on YouTube.
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