Metrics and Evaluation Models for Accessible Television

The adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) in 2006 has provided a global framework for work on accessibility, including information and communication technologies and audiovisual content. One of the challenges facing the application of the UN CRPD is terminology. The interpretation of concepts such as ‘disability’ and ‘accessibility’ builds on national traditions and metrics. A second challenge is implementation diversity: different nations and regions have their own interpretation of how media can be made accessible. A third challenge is the increasing number of platforms on which audiovisual content needs to be distributed, requiring very clear multiplatform architectures to facilitate interworking and assure interoperability. As a consequence, the regular evaluations of progress being made by signatories to the UN CRPD protocol are difficult to compare. Using case studies from three emerging economies (Argentina, Brazil and China) as well as industrialized nations including Canada, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the USA), this paper examines the situation facing television accessibility. Having identified and discussed existing metrics and evaluation models for access service provision, the paper identifies options that could facilitate the evaluation of UN CRPD outcomes and suggests priorities for future research in this area.