ITV Under fire for withdrawl of deaf access…

 

Yet another British commercial channel (ITV Wales was the first to withdraw sign news), is under fire from the BDA (British Deaf Asssociation),for deaf services cutback. TV BOSSES have come under fire after making savage cutbacks to their sign-language department. The issue seems to be the UK government has allowed a loophole that means sign access does NOT Have to be provided.. This poses serious access issues for the deaf BSL user in the UK… already getting less and less signed access to programs.
ITV’s Signpost, which is based in the North East of england, is shedding seven of its 24 sign language experts who appear on programmes for the deaf and hard of hearing.
The company, which supplies the service to other TV channels, said it has to make the cuts because new regulatory changes have seen its contracts dry up. But the British Deaf Association has called for the company to reconsider its position and said deaf people deserve to have more coverage, not less, on UK channels.
An ITV spokesman said: “In recent months there has been a significant reduction in the volume of core sign language translation business at ITV Signpost due to the loss of a number of key contracts, primarily as a result of regulatory changes. “As a result it is necessary to reduce the core head count. Affected staff will enter into a consultation period and voluntary redundancy opportunities will be available.”
The regulatory change means small channels can now opt out of the previous agreement where all TV companies had to broadcast at least half an hour of signed programming a month. Instead, if their share of the viewing figures is one per cent or less, they can pay £20,000 towards sign language programmes on the digital Community Channel.
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ITV Under fire for withdrawl of deaf access…
MM
Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:50:00 GMT