[blindkid] Video Accessibility Act

[Richard Holloway]

Albert (and others) I found some details on the requirements in the works that I mentioned before which relate to Audio Description for TV programs--

Sec. 202 of S. 3304, the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 clearly intends to make DVS programming for broadcast more available, starting first in the major television markets and adding more markets and programming over time. I do believe this relates only to broadcast programming, not DVD use, but I didn't read back through all 26 pages of this piece.

As far as access to controls to select the DVS, section 204 specifies that "... functions shall be accompanied by audio output ..." to assist the blind in navigating through menus to access these features. It seems an obvious choice to have already added this feature, but apparently not, based on what we have seen to date.

Below is a long link and longer links don't always behave well, but if your browser plays nicely with it, you can use this to download a pdf of the act. Otherwise, maybe google is best to locate it. The item linked is a 26 page pdf file. Note that the term "video description service" is used instead of audio description or DVS.

As far as DVD's, what I wonder (but have not yet explored) is how one might do to use a computer DVD player on a system with JAWS or a similar screen reader to access the language selections and access DVS audio. It doesn't solve everything as far as DVD's, but it might be one fairly reliable way to access the DVD menus better than with a conventional remote on a stand alone DVD player.

Here is the link:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&sqi=2&ved=0CEYQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gpo.gov%2Ffdsys%2Fpkg%2FPLAW-111publ260%2Fpdf%2FPLAW-111publ260.pdf&ei=c3nBUOSKKIS29QTUm4D4Bg&usg=AFQjCNE9LDWuTKxe50OC2AMsEP_cPjQtFQ&sig2=mij8ziCktYdfdaAcjdHJug&bvm=bv.1354675689,d.eWU