Colombia. The National Television Authority, ANTV, issued the resolution regulating the implementation of access systems for people with hearing disabilities in content transmitted through the public television service.
According to the latest Census conducted in Colombia by the Dane, 6.3% of the total population has some type of disability that hinders the execution of daily activities. Within this percentage, 1.1% represent the hearing impaired population.
For this reason, for the ANTV it is a priority to meet the constitutional and legal objectives related to the population with hearing disabilities, and to ensure their access and effective enjoyment of television. That is why after a long process, the entity issued resolution 350 of 2016 that obliges concessionaires of television spaces of Canal UNO, open television operators with national, regional and local coverage, as well as subscription television concessionaires in their own production channel, to implement the systems that guarantee this population access to television.
Operators must begin to provide access systems in their programming, so that by June 30, 2016, 60% of the programming already has close caption or subtitles and by January 31, 2017 100% of the programming is completed.
The resolution includes measures of warning, promotion, implementation, non-restriction in closed television, evaluation and reporting of information. Failure to implement these systems may be punished with fines of up to 2,000 minimum wages, suspension of service and expiration of the granting or cancellation of the license.
The access systems that the concessionaires will be able to implement must take into account Spanish as the official language of the country, the speed and readability of issuance of these systems:
Colombian Sign Language (LSC) Interpretation
Closed caption (CC) text
Subtitling (ST)
The systems or mechanisms that are developed in the future and have the respective endorsement of the competent entity.
Background
The regulatory process to implement access systems began in 2003 when the defunct National Television Commission – CNTV, through resolution 802, determined dates for that execution, until today, that task that the ANTV has continued through a process of adjustments to the regulations has included, among others, investigations, the presentation of documents and regulatory projects duly supported, the receipt of observations, concerns and comments that have been included according to their relevance.
The last regulatory project that was brought to the attention of Colombians, was published in December of last year and received, until January 31 of this year, 20 comments, which were taken into account by the ANTV to issue the standard.
Finally, it is important to note that the National Television Authority took into account more than 12 international experiences in which the legal frameworks and mechanisms used for the implementation of access systems in the television service to guarantee access for the hearing impaired population were analyzed.
For the full Resolution 350, click here.
