I’m disgusted.
The BBC have come out with a whopper. Not only do they not bother to subtitle online content, they have just uploaded a video about deaf children and cochlear implants – with NO subtitles and NO transcript. How am I supposed to understand it? Am I supposed to lipread this? You’ve got to be kidding!!
You can read Ian’s article about it here.
Please complain to the BBC and help to make online content more accessible for deaf people. You can complain about the BBC video on this link.
**** UPDATE ****
I received a reply from the BBC today, about an hour after complaining. Which is pretty good. The reply says;
Many thanks for your e-mail – other viewers have raised the same issue and I apolgoise for the fact that this story was presented in such a bare fashion. While it is not currently possible for us to provide subtitles on web videos, we should be able to offer a transcript. I think the problem arises, as in this case, when a report from a news programme is taken and put on the web and there is no accompanying written version, and no script of the video has been provided.
We are planning to e-mail all our colleagues reminding them of the need to think about accessibility issues when reporting on stories likely to be of particular interest to deaf people. Reporters should offer their scripts for inclusion, and web producers should get into the habit of
chasing the material. I hope this will avoid any repetition of this particular incident.
Kind regards,
Ian Jolly
News website
“Many thanks for your e-mail – other viewers have raised the same issue and I apolgoise for the fact that this story was presented in such a bare fashion.”
That’s how important it is to raise the issues!
Tell them that the apolgoise will be accepted if they give you a refund (money!!) ha ha
[…] be done but for the great efforts and activism of people and organizations like Bill Creswell, Ian Jolly, Reunify Gally, We Can Do, and countless others who raise this issue time and […]