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

UK updates requirements for accessible DTT equipment

Friday, 05 December 2008 13:29

The UK has revised its Core Receiver Requirements for the Digital Switchover Help Scheme. These are used to evaluate bids from companies wishing to provide equipment to older or disabled people who are eligible to receive free or subsidised equipment under the scheme. The revised requirements include many usability and accessibility features but fall short of guaranteeing full accessibility.

The good points are that:

• Receivers must be able to relay subtitles and audio description whenever they are included with programmes.
• Viewers will be able to switch subtitles or audio description on or off using a dedicated button on the remote control.
• Remote controls will be easy to learn and use and the protocol and codes will be available to designers of alternative remotes or assistive technologies (e.g. voice activated command input devices).

However, the requirements fall sort of guaranteeing full accessibility by leaving out the following important features:

• For on-screen text used in menus, subtitles, programme information and programme listings, the requirements mention readable fonts, line spacing, good contrast and limited colour saturation. But they do not require that viewers will be able to change the size and colour of on-screen text to suit their individual needs so some people with low vision will probably find that it doesn't meet their requirements.
• The spoken output of on-screen text is only recommended as "desirable" rather than being a requirement. This means that receivers available under the help scheme may still be unusable for blind viewers.

You can download the Core Receiver Requirements from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport website as either PDF or RTF (Rich Text Format which you can read using Microsoft Word and similar applications).