Making sure television is accessible to older people and people with disabilities

Introduction to TV and social inclusion

Last Updated (Friday, 01 May 2009 10:57)

Television is one of the main sources of information, education and entertainment for people in Ireland, particularly for older or disabled people who may be physically and socially isolated. It is especially important for people who are vision impaired, deaf or hard of hearing and face difficulties accessing printed or spoken media. The European Parliament has described access to television as a “fundamental right” and “of fundamental importance for democracy, freedom of expression and cultural pluralism”. The accessibility and affordability of television is therefore a basic requirement for the social inclusion of older people and people with disabilities.

Beyond information and entertainment

In 2001, in a resolution on the Television Without Frontiers Directive, the European Parliament said [1]:

Access to television is a fundamental right. Television is vital in defining the cultural landscape of modern societies and provides a primary source of information, education and entertainment. The audiovisual sector is … of fundamental importance for democracy, freedom of expression and cultural pluralism.

So television is about more than just information, education and entertainment. It is also about culture, democracy and freedom of expression. To the extent that the European Parliament considers access to television to be a fundamental right.

There can be no doubt then that the accessibility and affordability of television is a fundamental requirement for the social inclusion of people with disabilities, older people and people on low incomes. Lack of accessibility and affordability will cause exclusion on a large scale.

An important alternative to other inaccessible media

Television is particularly important for people who have difficulty accessing other media, such as printed materials.

Blind people

People who are blind are largely excluded from print media so television provides an important alternative source of news and information. According to research carried out by RNIB, 94% of blind and partially sighted people in the UK regularly watch television [2].

Although television may seem to consist largely of visual content, it is in fact an audiovisual medium and the audio part is arguably more important for conveying information than the visual part, for most programme types at least. You can see this for yourself by spending an evening watching television without looking at the picture – only listen to the audio. You will find that for many programme types, such as news, chat shows, comedies and dramas, you can pick up most of what is going on because a major part of the information comes in the form of spoken dialogue. Alternatively, try spending an evening watching only the picture with the sound turned off. Most dramas and comedies will be almost impossible to follow and you will not understand much of what you see on the news. About the only programmes that will remain largely understandable without audio are sports.

Although there are only 9,346 registered blind people in Ireland, as with most disability statistics this represents just the tip of the iceberg. Many people do not Make their disabilities known, either because they don’t realise the services that are available or they don’t want to draw attention to themselves in this way. Indeed, NCBI has more service users than there are registered blind and estimates that there are approximately 60,000 people in Ireland with vision impairments to the extent that they could benefit from NCBI’s services.

The Deaf community

For people in the Deaf community, for whom Irish Sign Language (ISL) may be their first or only language, most printed or spoken media present problems due to the language barrier. ISL is not a form of English or indeed anything like a spoken, written language. It is a visual language of hand and body movements and facial expressions. It is therefore ideally suited to a medium with a video component such as television. Since digital television allows a sign language track to be broadcast alongside programmes, it could provide an important source of media content for deaf people.

Older people

Older people are more likely than younger people to be isolated, both physically and socially. Age related mobility impairments often make it difficult for older people to get out of their homes. Television therefore provides an important way of bringing the world to them. In 2011 there will be over half a million people in Ireland over the age of 64. With the rapidly ageing population this will increase by a further 50% in the following 10 years [3].

Since many physical, sensory and cognitive impairments are age-related, it is common to find a high proportion of older people among those with disabilities, many of whom will have multiple impairments. For example, 61% of NCBI’s service users are over 65.

People with low literacy

A surprisingly large number of people are unable to access print media because of low literacy. A 1997 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) indicated that 23% of Irish adults were functionally illiterate and approximately another 20% per cent could perform only simple reading and writing tasks [4]. Like people who are blind or communicate using ISL, these people find television a particularly valuable source of information.

References

[1] European Parliament, 2001. Resolution on the third Commission report on the application of the Television Without Frontiers directive, 04/10/2001, COM (2001) 9.

[2] RNIB, 1991. Blind and Partially Sighted Adults in Britain: the RNIB Survey, Volume One.

[3] Central Statistics Office, 2008. Population and Labour Forces Projections 2011-2014.

[4] OECD, 1997. Literacy Skills for the Knowledge Society, Paris: OECD.