At the kind invitation of the Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation), ITU is organizing a Workshop on “Making Television Accessible – From idea to reality” hosted and supported by Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) on 28 May 2012 at the Science & Technology Research Laboratories Headquarters, Tokyo, Japan.

This workshop will be followed by the 5th FG AVA meeting on 29 May 2012 at the same venue (see details at: http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/ava/Pages/default.aspx.  

The Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) (or Japan Broadcasting Corporation) has expertise not only from its extensive research into media and the elderly but also from its world-class R&D work to propose next-generation access services to meet such needs. NHK has pioneered a range of emergency alert services that also take into consideration persons with hearing or cognitive impairments. These persons might otherwise be hard to keep informed at the beginning of and during emergencies. These cover not only the beginning of an emergency, but also cover the provision of live captioning and sign language services in the hours that follow. Using evaluation findings from the earthquake/ tsunami of March 11, 2011, the workshop will outline a framework for implementing a rugged and accessible emergency information service on TV that can be adapted for use elsewhere in the region.

The proposed workshop also deals with the use of television in connection with natural events such as earthquakes and tsunamis and emergency alerts in connection with chemical plants and power stations.

The workshop is thus a natural follow-up to three previous ITU-sponsored events:

1. The ITU tutorial on Audiovisual Media Accessibility in Delhi, India on March 14-15, 2012 focus on the needs of member states who need to plan the implementation of completely new access services for persons with disabilities on platforms such as television and mobile phones.
2. The ITU organized an Asia Pacific Regional Forum entitled Digital Inclusion for All on 21-23 June 2011, Singapore. The forum looked at the topic in general terms and touched on the media needs of the elderly.
3. The ITU and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) jointly organized a Workshop on Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV - ACCESS for ALL on 23 – 24 November 2010, in cooperation with the European Union project DTV4All. The Workshop explored how persons with hearing, sight or aging disabilities can consume the same broadcasting (television, radio and Internet) services as those without disabilities, to a reasonable extent.

Given the provisions of the UN CRPD and national legislation such as Japan’s target to have 100% captioning on all major public and commercial TV channels by 2017, the time is right to implement accessibility solutions that promote age-related TV accessibility, both first-generation access services such as captioning and audio description, and next-generation solutions that include clear audio, an awareness of the importance of changes in loudness levels and intelligent tempo regulation of TV programs.

This workshop will address the needs of Member States that already have access services for free-to-air television and who are extending their reach to make television truly accessible for those with age-related impairments.

The one-day workshop will cover two different but related topics:

• Making television accessible for elderly citizens and
• Emergency alert services on television – making them accessible to persons with disabilities. 

Asia Pacific Regions member states, regulators and broadcasters