TORONTO – In recognition of National Access Awareness Week running May 31 through June 6, The Accessible Channel (TACtv) is promoting media access for the more than 6.6 million Canadians who are blind, vision-impaired, deaf or hard of hearing.
The Accessible Channel, which has been on the air for almost six months, is a must carry for all BDUs as part of their basic digital service. Viewers who cannot see the television screen do not require additional equipment in order to access TACtv.
In partnership with content distributors such as CBS International, CBC, CTS, Rogers-Citytv, CTV, Canwest, Movieola, and “sister services” at the National Broadcast Reading Service, VoicePrint and AudioVision Canada, the channel airs all of its programming with open description and closed captions.
Description is a process in which a narrator describes the key visual elements of a movie, documentary or TV show that are not apparent if one relies on the original sound track alone. That narration is added to the sound track, and for vision-restricted and blind Canadians, description is the equivalent of closed captioning, which has long been available for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
TACtv says that it will continue to acquire programming in all genres – including news, information, drama and entertainment for all audiences – from broadcasters, movie and television distributors and from independent producers in order to “enhance” its current program schedule, 60% of which, as a condition of licence, must be Canadian.
One key goal of TACtv, “is to have first-run programming described as it’s done, by producers, and carried by broadcasters and cable companies,” said Betty Nobel, Board Chair of TACtv, in the press release. “So, if tonight is the premiere episode of the new season of a popular program, both sighted people and blind people can watch it at the same time.”
