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Video Description Restoration Act

My friend Alex Díaz emailed me this. It's about the Video Description Restoration Act. For additional information, please visit the American Council of the Blind website. Supporting the rights of the blind is important.

What is the Video Description Restoration Act (VDRA)?

The VDRA restores the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) video description rules, recently overturned in Federal Court. The Act would guarantee TV access for people who are not able to either see or otherwise understand what is happening visually during a television program. The VDRA would expressly grant FCC authority to restore its minimum requirements, with increased access over time.

What is video description?

Video description is the use of narration during natural pauses in dialog to let a person not able to see the screen know what is happening. Imagine yourself watching television. While music plays in the background, a voice describes a van marked "express air and heat" pulling up to a building where a sign reads "National Security Council." Inside the building, the man crawls through an air conditioning vent to a conference room and attaches a small microphone at the base of a vent above a table. The camera switches between people entering the room and the van pulling away from the building. There are countless scenes such as this which would leave a visually impaired person who can not see what is happening on the screen only to imagine what was happening and, further, frustrated by the lack of information.

Is video description still available?

Currently, there is a residual amount of video description on television, made available from the time when the FCC mandate went into effect, in April 2002. However, this described video is not secure and even when it is broadcast by the networks, our national membership tells us that the pass through of description on satellite, cable, and local stations is spotty at best.

Does the narration interfere with the ability of others to enjoy TV programming?

No. On television, the narration comes over a secondary audio programming (SAP) channel that is normally off unless switched on by people who want to hear it. The VDRA will continue providing audible descriptions via this mechanism and require a similar conversion for digital television where viewers will be able to select video description as one of the many audio options that technology offers.

What was the FCC mandate that the VDRA restores as a minimum level of service?

The Federal Communications Commission required the major networks and cable channels in the top twenty-five television markets to present at least four hours of described programming per week. The FCC further required that video described programs be made available where TV stations not in the top 25 markets had the equipment to do so.

Why should Congress pass the VDRA?

The vast majority of the blindness community enjoyed and continues to want video description as a matter of access and fairness. In many ways, video description is for blind people what closed captioning is for those who are deaf. Because the infrastructure is already in place and has been since the FCC mandate, no major effort is required of the industry to continue the service. Modern television increasingly relies upon visual effects and scenes to convey important elements of the plot, in contrast to older programming that was more dialog oriented. Moreover, while some networks such as Fox have been very supportive of the needs of blind and visually impaired viewers, even exceeding the requirements of the original mandate, there are others who may well choose to drop the service and even in those cases where networks continue to broadcast descriptions, the service is useless if it never makes it to consumers because of broken links in the delivery system which now has no responsibility to comply with an FCC rule now defunct.

Who supports video description and why?

The American Council of the Blind and all the other members of the National Television and Video Access Coalition have supported video description for more than 15 years because they understand that the service affords blind people the same access to information on television that sighted viewers take for granted. Other groups and advocates, including The American Association of Retired Persons, The American Foundation for the Blind, The Blinded Veterans Association, The Washington Metropolitan Ear, and other disability and deafness groups have also supported the service for the same reason. The FCC order came only after the commercial industry had essentially ignored the access issues for those 15 years.

Is video description expensive?

No. Producers of the service currently charge between two and four thousand dollars for an hour of programming.

How does this affect the average person?

Consider yourself and your family. If anyone were to lose vision and reach a point where they need to have television described, would this not be best accomplished by a professional service that accompanies television programs? There is not always someone else around to describe what is happening visually in a given television program, and family members and friends may have varying tastes, amounts of free time, or preferences. Should a visually impaired person have to rely upon the generosity of others in a household to acquire such basic information when it has been adequately demonstrated that video description can be delivered easily and economically by the television networks? Also, consider that vision loss is a common occurrence with aging and video description is a way to guarantee that those who encounter vision loss will not be left out of the ability to enjoy television in much the same way they always did.

Where is there ongoing information about this issue?

You can visit ACB's website at www.acb.org or call them at (202) 467-5081 to get a copy of the Act and/or the latest information on the Act. If you'd like to support this Act, you can either 1) call 202-225-3121 and ask for your representative in the U.S. House of Representatives and your senators in the U.S. Senate or 2) visit www.house.gov and www.senate.gov to look up your representative and senator so you can send them an email today. Your voice is needed to request that the Video Description Restoration Act be sponsored, co-sponsored, and passed by Congress for the President to sign. Whether or not you are blind or disabled, your help is needed. Please send this to everyone you can and make sure you call or email your representative and senators today!

Posted by Miguel at 10:43 PM

Comments

Posted by: Simon King at April 15, 2003 11:53 PM