Background
Nowadays, television broadcasting is an essential access point to information, culture and entertainment. If this matter of fact is considered as being normal for 385 million of European citizens, it is not always the case for 59 million of hearing-impaired people (of which 4,7 million are profoundly deaf) and 7,4 million of visually impaired people. Although this situation has considerably been improved in the past years, it should be noted that in some areas there are still some outstanding issues which continue to hamper a wider development and use of subtitling, sign language presentation and audio description technologies and services.
Moreover, it should be emphasized that developments in this field will not only benefit the community of deaf and blind people but will also improve the living conditions of a larger circle of users like the elderly or people residing or travelling in foreign countries.
Though some issues are mainly of political nature, others are relevant to standardization and imply the involvement of broadcasters as well as the equipment manufacturers.
In the framework of the Commission's eEurope initiative, CEN, CENELEC and ETSI decided to organize a workshop in order to clearly identify those issues. This workshop will also bring the existing standards to the light and will define the way forward where gaps and standardization needs are pointed out.
Purpose
The objective of the workshop would be to discuss all issues in the domain of subtitling and audio description that could be addressed by standardization. A report will summarize the different issues identified during the workshop and will propose a way forward.
Target Audience
The issues tackled in this workshop will involve the following stakeholders:
- Consumer associations
- Association of people with disabilities
- Broadcasters
- Equipment manufacturers
- Standardization organizations
- Policy makers
Day 1: 13 JUNE
Chairman: Mr. Carlos Domingo Pagés, Vice-President of CENELEC
14:00 Registration*
16:00 Opening ceremony
by Mr. Carlos Domingo Pagés, Vice-President of CENELEC
16:10 Keynote speech
by Mrs. Anne Lehouck, European Commission
16:30 The importance of accessibility for the disabled
by Mr. C.R. Fernández Gutiérrez, Director General of Fundación ONCE
16:50 Subtitling: achievements and limitations
by Mr. Pirelli, VOICE Project's coordinator at EC-JRC
17:20 Audiodescription and its potential
by Sir John Wall, President of EBU
17:50 Coffee break
18:10 Role of the Standards Organizations in accessibility for all
by Mr. Rosenbrock, Director of ETSI
18:40 The point of view of the Broadcasters
by Mr. Laven, European Broadcasting Union
19:00 Consumer electronic Manufacturers
by Mr. Jan Van Lier, EICTA
19:20 Open debate
20:00 Conclusions and closure of day 1
by Mr. Carlos Domingo Pagés, Vice-President of CENELEC
20:30 Cocktail offered by CENELEC
* Demos of subtitling practices by different TV broadcasters will take place during Registration time in separate rooms.
Day 2: 14 JUNE
09:00 Two parallel sessions will take place in different rooms.**
· Session 1: The Services: identifying and anticipating specific services for the disabled integrating Design for All requirements
· Session 2: The Interface: Identifying the requirements to enable the development of a harmonized and widely accessible interface
11:00 Coffee break
11:30 Sessions 1 and 2 cont'd
13:00 Conclusions by the chairman and closure of the Workshop
by Mr. Pieter Parlevliet, Secretary General of CENELEC
** We will provide forms during day one for you to choose which session to attend on day 2.
Session 1: The Services
Nowadays, television is not only a means to broadcast TV programs but it also offers an increasing number of interactive services such as "Internet access" or "Telecare". With the arrival of digital television, the quantity and variety of services delivered through television will probably explode.
These services are an open window to the whole world and the key access to a "normal" social life for a lot of disabled and elderly people. Subtitling, sign language presentation and audio description are specific services that should be further developed and harmonized; at the same time we shall also address the opportunity to introduce design for ALL requirements in emerging services at the early stage, as well as the quality of the services offered.
Purpose
The purpose of this session is to identify requirements for specific services for the disabled and elderly people and also to anticipate how emerging new services shall take on board design for ALL requirements.
Session 2: The Interface
The interface is the key to access TV programs and services. This interface shall be accessible to ALL and harmonized as far as possible.
Very often, remote control devices do not offer any facilities for people with disabilities, not to mention on-screen menus which are unusable by visually impaired people. In this context, it should be noted that the growing introduction of tactile screens does not improve their living conditions.
The interface does not only concern the remote control and menuing; it also covers the way the information is rendered and displayed. In this field, guidance and harmonization shall be provided to ensure that subtitling (syntax, location on the screen, color,…), audio description and other services are provided in a harmonized way regardless of the country, the language, the channel or the equipment.
Purpose
The purpose of this session is to identify the requirements to enable the development of a harmonized and widely accessible interface.
TV BROADCASTING FOR ALL
INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP
June 13 & 14, 2002
Gran Hotel Renacimiento
Isla de la Cartuja - E-41092 Seville
Organized by CEN, CENELEC & ETSI
with the support of the European Commission