Please sign this

[BoredBloke]

Have you written to Peter White at the BBC?

Not yet

My son went straight in for this one!

Early day motion 628 - LACK OF AUDIO DESCRIPTION FROM ONLINE STREAMING COMPANIES - UK Parliament. Its my son who got him to raise the early day motion.

[Zippy]

Ah jolly good. Early day motions do not have a great success rate so trying to contact my MP to get him to back it.
He's a <cough>Tory</cough> though, so don't hold yer breath.

[Coalman]

Done, and well done to your son BB.

[Old Greg]

I would have thought it was not against discriminatory laws because you do not have to use it....

but good thread and it will be signed n shared.

The question is: is it a reasonable adjustment, like installing a wheelchair accessible ramp to a building?

[BoredBloke]

I'd say it's reasonable. On a dvd the audio description is just another audio track. When you select it the dvd plays with that track like it would if you wanted 5.1 surround or the audio in French. Depending on how they steam the films, even if they don't steam the video and audio separatly, the worst case is they have to store an AD and a non AD version of the film. Their argument is that there are not enough people to justify it, but they seem to forget that blind people have families. We have not signed up because he wouldn't be able to watch the content with us.

[Old Greg]

I'd say it's reasonable. On a dvd the audio description is just another audio track. When you select it the dvd plays with that track like it would if you wanted 5.1 surround or the audio in French. Depending on how they steam the films, even if they don't steam the video and audio separatly, the worst case is they have to store an AD and a non AD version of the film. Their argument is that there are not enough people to justify it, but they seem to forget that blind people have families. We have not signed up because he wouldn't be able to watch the content with us.

I agree. Which is why a challenge under existing legislation looks a better bet than new legislation. They may buckle under the threat.

[BoredBloke]

Thought it was worth an update to this. We were out shopping yesterday and James mentioned something about how you have to book phone calls with ministers. I asked him how he knew that and he told me that he has a 10 minute phone call booked with the culture secretary later this month to discuss this.

[Ticktock]

Try getting in contact with Guide Dogs. Despite the name, this isn't all they do. They have various campaigns going, including to get audio announcements on buses to tell you what the next stop is, getting pavement clutter cleared away (sandwich boards, etc), and others, so this may be something they could help with.

[chef]

Signed and shared on FB

[BoredBloke]

Well it looks like he's won. He got a call from George Galloway to expect a call from some big wig at Amazon. This evening he got a call and was told that they are going to start providing Audio Description on all films where the audio description track is provided - pretty much all DVD's at the moment. This is after months of being told its not cost effective by NetFlix, Sky and Amazon and even the minister who represents disabled people.

No time scales yet but things are looking good.