Foreword

There are 650 million people with disabilities in the world today – about 10% of the world's population – and their proportion and number are growing, as humanity lives longer. A disproportionately high number of those with disabilities are in developing countries. Television, radio, and Internet are an integral part of the fabric of society, and we cannot imagine a "full life' without them. Having a disability can deny normal access to the media, and this can limit life-choices, personal independence, personal fulfilment, sense of identity, enjoyment, and social cohesion.

In considering Resolution 70 (Johannesburg, 2008) of the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly as well as Resolution 58 (Hyderabad, 2010) of the World Telecommunication Development Conference, on access to ICT for persons with disabilities, including age-related disabilities, the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (Guadalajara, 2010) approved Resolution 175 that instructs all three ITU sectors, inter alia, "to take account of persons with disabilities in the work of ITU, and to collaborate in adopting a comprehensive action plan in order to extend access to telecommunications/ICTs to persons with disabilities, in collaboration with external entities and bodies concerned with this subject".

The following is given in the UN Convention as an explanation of the principle of "disability". "Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others".

Particularly important disabilities relevant for the media include:

– hearing disabilities;

– seeing disabilities;

– aging disabilities;

– cognitive disabilities;

– lack of controllability of the man-machine interface and ease of use of the receiver or terminal.

However, the structure of the broadcasting system, language/writing system and culture, broadcast formats vary from one country to another and affect what kind of services may be delivered.

The Convention does not ask that infinite resources be given over to providing services for those with disabilities, but it does call for "reasonable accommodation" for persons with disabilities. The interpretation of this is clearly a critical issue that needs much care.

The Convention offers the following explanation of reasonable accommodation: "necessary and appropriate modification and adjustments not imposing a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms".

So, what is a proportionate burden on television, radio, and Internet to provide measures that will make it possible for those with hearing, sight, or aging disabilities to consume the same services as those without disabilities? In other words: What is "reasonable"?

Each country should establish its own accessibility programs in response to the wishes of its population with disabilities, broadcast standards, technical possibilities, resources available for investment and the management circumstances of its broadcasters.

The ITU-R may have a role to play in promoting the technical research and development that will make it possible to provide such accessible services and that will ease the burden of doing so on broadcasters, and/or in defining necessary conditions and specifications for broadcasting systems and accessible receivers. The ITU-R also has a role to play in establishing a system for sharing worldwide the results of research and development along with information and know-how on the practical operation of accessible services.

What kind of accessible broadcast services may be introduced on what timescale depends on local conditions in each country as discussed above; the following sections are intended as examples of the kind of technology that may contribute to accessible services depending on local conditions.