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Access 2020, a newly formed
coalition of Canada's largest accessibility organizations, will be asking
the CRTC to adopt a new approach to accessibility in its May 2011 policy
hearing on vertical integration.
"While current regulatory trends mean that sight- and hearing-impaired
Canadians will only obtain complete access to television in thirty years,
Access 2020's goal is to achieve fully captioned and described television
content within the next decade," said Beverley Milligan, on behalf of
Media Access Canada which is leading the Coalition. "We will be inviting
the CRTC to empower Canada's accessibility organizations to research,
test, develop and monitor the implementation of modern, multi-platform
digital accessibility standards."
Since its members appeared at the CRTC public hearing of Shaw's purchase
of Canwest in September, the Access 2020 Coalition has also appeared
before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to
explain how vertical integration could benefit Canada's broadcasting
system by making it fully accessible in a reasonable time frame, at no new
cost to taxpayers. The Coalition includes the Canadian National Institute
for the Blind, the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association, the Canadian
Council of Disabilities and the Ontario March of Dimes.
"We think we can make the fastest progress in these areas by working
together," said Andria Spindel, Executive Director of the Ontario March of
Dimes. "Canada can achieve the Access 2020 goal with a positive and
coordinated approach to the communications sector, regulators and
legislators."
The Access 2020 Coalition has proposed that 1% of all TV ownership
transactions from now until 2015 be allocated to accessibility research,
including standards development and systematic, third-party monitoring of
progress towards full accessibility in terms of captioning and described
video.
"Vertical integration should be harnessed to benefit the broadcasting
system by funding this research on an ongoing basis." said CNIB's Vice
President of Government Relations, Bill McKeown. The first results of the
Monitor 2 content analysis of major conventional TV broadcasting groups,
being undertaken by Analysis and Research in Communications Inc., will be
published in early 2011. The project's first phase report will address
quantitative levels of captioned and described content, while in 2012 its
second phase will report on issues related to the quality of captioning
and description.
"Understanding progress in quality and quantity issues related to
accessible content requires well-designed empirical research like Monitor
2," said Snookie Lomow, Executive Director of the Canadian Hard of Hearing
Society. "We look forward to having these results in time for the CRTC's
vertical integration hearing and its hearings into the renewal of Canada's
major
broadcasting
groups."
Source: Broadcaster,
12/16/2010 |