On 28 November 2012, ATVOD (the independent co-regulator for the editorial content of video on demand services in UK) published its report on the accessibility of VOD services for people with disabilities of sight or hearing.
The report is based on the ATVOD's annual survey of regulated services providers on the level of provision of access services. All providers of VOD services were invited to indicate the scale of provision of each type of access service (subtitles, signing and audio description), together with any future plans for access service provision. ATVOD received responses from seventeen providers in relation to thirty-six services.
The report shows that the most significant progress in access services provision has been made by public service broadcasters. Subtitling is the most widely provided access service (available in 12 services). Sign language and audio description were available in two services; several other providers have plans to offer these services in future. Main practical barriers to accessibility are inability of some platforms to support access services and operational complexity, which make the transfer of existing access services from broadcast to VOD difficult.
Best practice guidelines for accessibility on VOD