The British Deaf Association warmly welcomes the positive action from Ofcom to increase the broadcasters’ obligations from 30 minutes each month to 75 minutes per month to provide sign-presented TV programmes, starting from January 2016.
Dr Terry Riley OBE, the Chair of the BDA, said “This is really incredible news! We have seen BSLBT who have for these past few years have commissioned sign-presented progress as part of the BSL Zone, winning so many deserved awards from all around the world and given new deaf talent a first footstep into film making which they would otherwise not have received.
With these new requirements, we will now see more sign presented programmes. a more secure funding opportunities for new deaf talent, and high quality production programmes (value for money). Our dream of a Deaf channel becomes more and more a reality in the future. To ensure this, we will continue working with the OfCOM and broadcasters to build on this success, providing more sign language programmes during the coming years.”
See Ofcom’s full statement – click here.
