​​​​​​​​​Accessibility to cable systems and services

(Continuation of Question 11/9)

Motivation

Among different audio-visual media, television is the oldest and by so far the most popular one. With advent of electronic technologies, it is changing its role from an one-to-many broadcasting ​​​​​media to an interactive system. Using systems like WebTV or Hybrid TV, users can interact with both broadcasting program and webpages using TV. This interactive role also enhances TV’s role to offer accessibility not only to people with different range of abilities but also to foreign language speakers, elderly people and users in situation impairment like inside moving vehicle.

​This question plans to investigate accessibility of existing cable TV systems and propose recommendations for enhancing accessibility in line of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), European Union Accessibility Directive and other national legislation of Member States. ITU-T SG9 would also like to take forward the work earlier initiated at the ITU-T Focus Group on Smart Cable TV and liaison with ITU-T Q26/16 and ITU IRG-AVA.

Question

• In collaboration with the IRG-AVA, investigating a common framework to offer accessibility across various media and TV networks such us Cable TV, Direct-to-Home (DTH), Satellite TV, IPTV and so on.
• ​Propose a common taxonomy of use cases for accessible audio-visual media in cable TV systems.
• Propose a common user profile format addressing the needs of persons with accessibility restrictions, that could be utilized by different media and platforms.
• Investigating accessibility of emerging input technologies applicable to the delivery of cable television services, such as second screen and gesture recognition.
• Investigate accessibility of audiovisual content delivery issues for cable networks.
• Investigate challenges of providing accessibility services for cable TVs in developing countries.

Tasks

• Coordinating with ITU-T Q26/16, ITU IRG AVA and ISO/IEC JTC1 SC35
• Developing participation taxonomy of use cases for accessible audio-visual media in cable TV systems
• Developing common user profile format addressing the needs of persons with accessibility restrictions, that could be utilized by different media and platforms
• Optimizing positioning of visual accessibility features (like signing, closed captioning) in cable TV systems and related advanced services (e.g AR/VR)
• Developing audiovisual content delivery accessibility roadmap for cable networks in both developed and developing countries

An up-to-date status of work under this Question is contained in the ITU-T SG 9 work programme, (http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/workprog/wp_search.aspx?sp=16&q=11/9​).​​