INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION
JOINT COORDINATION ACTIVITY
ON ACCESSIBILITY AND HUMAN
FACTORS
TELECOMMUNICATION
STANDARDIZATION SECTOR
Doc 123
English only
STUDY PERIOD 2013-2016
Original: English
Source:
TSB
Title:
ITU-EBU Meeting for Central and Eastern Europe on eAccessibility in Television
Broadcasting, 3 - 4 December 2013, Zagreb, Croatia
ITU and EBU organized jointly a meeting on “E-accessibility in Central and Eastern Europe
(Internet and digital television) for blind people and people with visual impairment problems”, 3-4
December in Zagreb, Croatia. The meeting was hosted by HRT Academy, which is the training
center of the Hrvatska radiotelevizija (Croatian national radiotelevision).
The theme of the meeting was organized in the framework of WTDC-10 Resolution 70 “Regional
initiative for Central and Eastern Europe on "E-accessibility (Internet and digital television) for
persons with disabilities". The objective of the meeting was to provide assistance to Member States
in order to offer e-accessibility (including Internet and information access) for blind people and
people with visual impairment problems.
Three ITU staff participated to the event: Mr Vladimir Stankovic, Ms Susan Schorr and Ms
Alexandra Gaspari.
An introductory session was conducted by ITU-D/BDT staff, Head of Special Initiatives Division,
Ms Susan Schorr, who laid out the general notions of ITU work on accessibility. The following
sessions reviewed different aspects associated with access services, and audiovisual media
accessibility.
The meeting presentations provided a basis for
-
exchange of best practices in field of accessibility services for digital TV,
-
identification of gaps in the region that might be addressed in the future
-
access services for broadcasters, such as subtitling, audio description and audio (spoken)
captions
The discussions focused mainly on the role of television, as a main tool for enhancing national
identity, providing an outlet for domestic media content and getting news and information to the
public, which is especially critical in times of emergencies. Migration from analogue to digital TV
represents an ideal opportunity for ITU members to take the necessary steps to ensure TV is
accessible.
Participants were managers and technical staff representatives from the Radio Television of Serbia,
Serbia (RTS), RTS Digital and RTS SAT, Radio Television of Vojvodina, Serbia, HRT Academy,
Croatian Radiotelevision.
Contact
TSB
Email
tsbjcaahf@itu.int
Attention: This is not a publication made available to the public, but an internal ITU-T Document intended only for use by the
Member States of ITU, by ITU-T Sector Members and Associates, and their respective staff and collaborators in their ITU related
work. It shall not be made available to, and used by, any other persons or entities without the prior written consent of ITU-T.
-2Doc 123
ITU-T/TSB contributed substantially to the BDT led seminar: most of the presentations were given
by former FG AVA experts Mr Gion Linder (Working Group A “Captioning” coordinator, Swiss
TXT), Ms Pilar Orero (Working Group B “Audio description and spoken captions” coordinator,
UAB, Spain), Mr David Wood (FG AVA Vice-chairman, EBU). ITU-T/SB Staff, Programme
Coordinator for Accessibility, Alexandra Gaspari was invited to join for the introduction to the
seminar, present the work of the ITU-T work on audiovisual accessibility and wrap up for the final
remarks and conclusions.
The participants, experts and ITU staff continuously engaged in interactive discussions,
brainstorming, also going beyond the timeframe assigned for the seminar. Some FG AVA
deliverables were made available to participants for information and discussion. Participants were
invited to comment in view of the WP2/16 and Q26/16 meeting at the end of February 2014.
Participants were also invited to join the IRG AVA.
The participants from three broadcasters appreciated very much the hands-on approach of the
meeting and presented samples of videos, demos, techniques used in their respective televisions for
access services. The meeting adopted a set of recommendations for 2014 which will be made
available on the shortly and which will be submitted for consideration of the relevant authorities of
the region.
Additional info
Website of the event
Draft Agenda
A webpage was published by the Croatian national broadcaster, which can be seen here