2 Apr : Close on the heels of government websites being made accessible to the visually impaired, Prime Time news on Doordarshan will soon be accessible to the hearing impaired.
Acting on a two-year-old plea of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) the govt has agreed that while the news anchor reads the news, a running scroll or sub-titles will appear at the bottom of the screen of the TV set.
The decision to make Prime Time news accessible to hearing impaired was taken at a meeting held in the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) earlier in March, informed NCPEDP Honorary Director, Javed Abidi.
”Until now, the only accessible TV news available to the deaf people was the weekly sign language news bulletin,” he said, adding that in several developed countries, the sub-titling of television programming was in use.
”The government was forced to take notice of our plea when on World Disability Day this year we raised the issue at our India Gate Rally and made it one of our 10 Big Ticket demands,” he informed.
”We are grateful to the PMO for understanding our sentiments and for supporting our demand and for catalyzing the dialogue with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting which has finally lead to this decision,” he said.