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Outreach Toolkit - Article: DTV and People with DisabilitiesThe transition from analog to digital television broadcasting will be historic. After February 17, 2009, the country’s full power broadcast television stations will stop broadcasting in analog and broadcast exclusively in digital, as mandated by Congress in the Digital Television and Public Safety Act of 2005. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is continuing a multi-faceted approach to informing people with disabilities about the DTV transition. The approach includes DTV workshops dedicated to issues facing people with disabilities, collaboration with disability advocacy groups and outreach organizations, and the publication of educational materials and advisories for people with disabilities. Consumers who receive their local broadcast stations through a paid provider such as cable or satellite TV are already prepared for the DTV transition. Consumers who rely on free, over-the-air television programming by using rooftop antennas or “rabbit ears” on their sets have two choices to be ready for the DTV transition: (1) they can purchase a digital television (a TV with a built-in digital tuner) or (2) they can purchase a digital-to-analog converter box for each of their analog TVs so they can continue to receive free, over-the-air programming on them. Closed Captioning Some consumers have expressed concern about how the digital-to-analog converter boxes will work and whether consumers will continue to receive closed captions after the transition to digital television. FCC rules require digital-to-analog converter boxes to either pass through available analog captions or generate their own digital captions if the programming is captioned. Below is some information about closed captioning and digital broadcasting: Digital-to-analog converter boxes used with analog TVs:
Digital TVs:
Paid television services (such as cable or satellite TV):
You can get more information on closed captioning from the following FCC consumer advisories: Questions about closed captioning also may be sent to the FCC’s dedicated closed captioning email box at closedcaptioning@fcc.gov. Video Description Services Some programming has contained video descriptions for a number of years. At present, video descriptions are available through the secondary audio programming (SAP) channel on an analog stereo TV set or VCR. In July 2000, the FCC adopted rules to make television more accessible to people with vision disabilities by mandating that a certain amount of programming contain video description. These rules took effect in April 2002, but were vacated by a federal court in November 2002. As a result, video description is not required. Nevertheless, some programming providers voluntarily continue to provide video descriptions. Also, the requirement in Section 79.2 of the FCC’s rules that emergency information provided on television be accessible to individuals who have vision disabilities is still in place. This means that broadcasters must orally describe any emergency information that is shown on the screen (e.g., weather map showing tornadoes) during regular or special newscasts, and must accompany any emergency information that is presented in a crawl or scroll with an aural tone which instructs individuals with vision disabilities to turn to a radio or another source for more information. With digital television, broadcasters have more audio channels on which to provide video description. Because digital television encodes audio in a different manner than the encoding used in analog television, digital television does not utilize a SAP channel to transmit video descriptions. The digital television standards provide for two types of main audio service and six types of associated services, including associated services for people with vision disabilities. The standards also permit the transmission of secondary language programming. So while there was one option under the old analog TV service (i.e., the SAP channel), broadcasters now have more audio channels to provide this voluntary service. However, inserting video descriptions into digital programming that was not created by the distributor may involve additional expense for broadcasters. For this reason, consumers should contact their local broadcasters to determine whether video description is offered. Televisions with digital tuners should be able to process the audio services associated with the digital TV signals through functions that are built into their systems. Consumers should confirm with the manufacturer, owner’s manual or retailer prior to purchase to determine if this feature is included in the digital TV. For consumers who will be using a digital-to-analog converter box to receive digital over-the-air television signals on an analog television, some of the digital-to-analog converter boxes that have been approved for NTIA coupon eligibility are capable of processing the associated audio services that are broadcast by a digital television station. Consumers using cable or satellite services should ask for additional information about the availability of video description from their service providers. To the extent that cable systems, satellite systems or other multi-channel video programming distributors receive programming with video description, those video descriptions should be delivered to the consumer. You can get more information on video descriptions from the following FCC consumer advisory: www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/dtvvideodescription.html. Additional Publications The FCC website, www.dtv.gov, features a DTV educational video in American Sign Language for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. Also, the FCC’s most commonly utilized publications are available in Braille and audio format and all fact sheets and advisories are available in large print. For more information on the DTV transition, call us at 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) or by TTY at 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322), e-mail us at DTVinfo@fcc.gov, or visit our website at www.dtv.gov.
Last reviewed/updated on 11/14/08 |
For comments or questions pertaining to the DTV transition, please e-mail DTVinfo@fcc.gov Skip Bottom FCC Navigation Links FCC Home | Search | Updates | E-Filing | Initiatives | For Consumers | Find People |
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