An article was recently published that accused Shaw Communications Inc., a huge communications company in Canada, of neglecting accessibility in its takeover plans for Canwest Global, one of the main TV broadcasters in the country. This follows Canwest’s move to protected bankruptcy in late 2009 and the selling off of various parts of the company.
A collection of groups and individuals in support of Canadians with disabilities expressed their concern with Shaw’s plans, drawing attention to the lack of coverage of accessibility issues in their bid of approximately $2 billion. Beverley Milligan, President and CEO of a group that advocates on behalf of Canadians with disabilities, Media Access Canada, had this to say: “Frankly, we were shocked that in applying for control of so many TV stations and specialty services Shaw didn’t even mention issues like closed captioning and descriptive video.”
The group has entered an intervention to the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission), in which it lists ten features that would improve Shaw’s bid in terms of accessibility.
As it stands, closed caption television (i.e., where text is displayed on a television screen to provide information to viewers who wish to access it) is now required across the whole TV schedule, but as Milligan points out, this has taken 20 years to establish. Concern for a similarly slow introduction of descriptive video is at the top of Milligan’s agenda: “how long [are] Canadians who rely on descriptive video… supposed to wait before they can access television like everyone else? The year 2030?”
In 2008 and 2009, the CRTC undertook a large overview of accessibility policy (in which, by the way, Shaw acknowledged the importance of accessibility in communications). This extended across a huge range of accessibility issues, including for example, the necessity for cell phone companies to provide at least one model that caters to the requirements of people with disabilities (not excluding mobility problems).
At Barrier Free Living, we recognise the rights of everyone to live an accessible lifestyle, and so we proudly promote universal design through our provision of innovative architectural products, such as handicap showers and accessible education furnishings.