|
The Newsletter of COTIS
The Confederation of Transcribed Information Services
To promote the provision of information in alternative formats to print
Editor - Linda Pearce, Email:
ontrack@cotis.org.uk .
Project Office, 67 High Street, Tarporley, Cheshire, CW6 ODP. Tel: 01829-733351
(Answerphone)
Reg Charity No: 299024 © Issue 44 - May 2003
An interview with Kay Allen, Manager with responsibility for disability, BSkyB.
Kay Allen's work has helped improve disabled access to businesses including B&Q; now, Kay aims to bring the same awareness to the satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
Kay Allen is recognised as one of the leading diversity specialists in the UK, with over sixteen years' direct experience in this growing field. Over the last six years, disabled people have benefited from her work; directly, if they've recently visited a B&Q store, or indirectly through the many businesses and individuals she has been involved with through her duties as a Commissioner on the Disability Rights Commission. Now, she is moving into the increasingly important area of broadcasting as BSkyB's first-ever manager with responsibility for disability - be it in terms of access to services, the portrayal of disabled people in programming, or the employment of disabled people both in front of, and behind, the camera.
Kay told us: "Sky has been listening to disabled people through a series of focus groups to look at how we can improve our customer services to ensure that Sky is both easy to use and offers the right service."
BSkyB is not currently under the same accessibility obligations as terrestrial broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV, Channels 4 and Five; however, as a major player in the development of new digital services, the company is not resting on its laurels. "Sky does need to respond to its service provision responsibilities under the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) and to the forthcoming Communications Bill, and will of course comply, but we are more interested in delivering the best possible services and attracting a lot more disabled customers. "For example, concerns highlighted from the focus groups included access to TV listings information for visually impaired people. Blind viewers find it very difficult to find out what is actually on TV. Turning the narration service on and off more easily was also of concern."
Kay said: "As far as the business case is concerned we hope that as we improve our services we can attract over 100,000 new disabled customers who will benefit from easier access to Sky.
"In order to tackle some of the problems highlighted by our disabled customers, Sky is arranging a series of technical meetings to resolve issues such as developing an audio version of the EPG (Electronic Programme Guide). RNIB will be involved in these discussions.
"Some progress is being made and people may be interested to know that at present we have over 3,000 hours each year of audio described programmes free to over 6.3 million homes. We are looking to improve access to TV listings information and we can now provide all printed information in alternative media. This includes the Sky Magazine which will be available on CD from June." This service is being provided by COTIS member Vision Support Trading.
On 12 June Tony Ball, Chief Executive Officer, will be giving a public commitment to disability at the annual meeting of the Broadcasters Disability Network. He will be announcing the launch of the Sky disability service team offering a one-stop shop for disabled customers.
In the run-up to the new access duties that come into force in 2004, the company is also completing access audits of all its buildings, as well as reviewing its employment procedures.
"We have recently launched a new web site www.sky.com/disability. This site will be regularly updated and will detail what we are doing to improve our services in the future. There is an enormous amount that Sky can do to ensure that its services reach disabled people who would potentially benefit from interactive TV."
In her new position, Kay aims to be able to continue to make a difference to the lives of disabled people by ensuring that the advances being made with interactive services and multi-channel TV take into account the access needs of disabled people. Her time at B&Q proved that there was a powerful business case for its disability strategy - she is determined to have an even greater success story at BSkyB.
Kay concluded: "I would be interested to hear the views of COTIS subscribers on how Sky could help improve access to television. If you would like to offer comments please send an e-mail to disability@bskyb.com".
by Marilyn Oldershaw, RNIB Copyright Officer
In January's update on Copyright I said that we were hopeful that the Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons) Act would be in force by spring of this year. Unfortunately, the Patent Office, which is administering the passage of this new legislation on to the statute books, has informed us that this is now more likely to happen at the end of June.
In the meantime, copyright-holder representatives, under the umbrella of the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), are consulting agencies about a licensing scheme, which the CLA is planning to be in operation in time for the implementation of the new legislation. Under the Act a licensing body may issue licences to organisations and educational establishments who make multiple copies, but the scheme cannot be more restrictive than the provisions of the Act. Although we have only seen their draft proposal of such a scheme it does look as though it will be easier to administrate than the Act and it may be even less restrictive.
For queries about the Copyright Act, contact Marilyn Oldershaw or David Mann. For queries about the Licensing Scheme, contact Marilyn Oldershaw.
by Wendy Davies, COTIS Chair
Held at RNIB London on 10th February 2003
Present: Several RNIB officers; and representatives from Calibre, National Library for the Blind (NLB), Clear Vision, National League Blind & Disabled, National Federation of the Blind, COTIS, Share the Vision (STV).
1 Background
The Right to Read campaign was launched in May 2002, with the premise that blind and partially sighted people should be able to read the same material as sighted people, at the same time and at no extra cost. The main hurdles to be overcome were seen as:
There are some fundamental problems which RNIB would like the government and the publishing industry to address urgently.
To remedy this situation, RNIB has made the following demands:
David Mann described the RNIB campaign thus far. It was focussed around last year's Right to Read week, including supporters sending postcards to their MPs, letters from Ian Bruce (Director General, RNIB) being sent to various government officials, and the demanding of a £20 million fund to support more transcription. In July, a meeting was convened by the Minister for Disabled People, Maria Eagle. Officials listened and said they would consult. At the end of October, RNIB finally received a letter saying the minister's office was not in a position to help, citing the comprehensive spending review. Ian Bruce wrote back asking them at least to fund benchmarking research on the proportion of titles which are accessible and/or on the comparative levels of expenditure in various countries, and for a joint industry working party to be set up. A refusal on this has also just been received - although a meeting on SENDA (Special Educational Needs and Disability Act) issues will be set up. So, as the umbrella Disabled People department cannot help, RNIB now intends to tackle the mainstream government departments individually.
2 Main Discussion Points:
2.1 Clarification of what material and needs were to be covered by the RNIB Right to Read campaign:
2.2 The meeting developed the idea of a Charter, with initial activity focussed on getting widespread sign-up to its principles in all sectors - users, alternative format producers, mainstream publishers, authors etc.
2.3 RNIB asked if the target of 'doubling the amount of published material' was right. This would mean increasing the percentage of overall published material from 5% to 10%. No firm decisions were made.
2.4 It was agreed by all that this should be a joint campaign, perhaps with its own logo (certainly not including logos of all participating agencies), with the other agencies contributing finance and resources according to ability and usage of materials.
3 Information Shared
3.1 Collaboration with publishers at an official level is currently focussed on licensing schemes.
3.2 In the United States, the US Instructional Materials Act is currently making little progress. This Act would require, at federal level, the deposit of a file in a specified format of any book used in the public education sector. A sub-group was still working on the definition of the file format, hopefully to be DAISY (Digital Accessible Information Systems).
3.3 The British Library is working on a draft Private Member's Bill to cover the legal deposit of electronic books (it is not known what format is being specified). The meeting agreed that the group needed to keep the concept of an e-deposit for print publications on our agenda.
3.4 SENDA contains some anomalies; school curriculum access is covered, which only applies to statemented children, so that those without statements are falling through the net. RNIB is researching pre- and post-SENDA experience. Local Authorities (LAs) are having to write disability plans and strategies. RNIB's Education Department is sending out information to all LAs on what criteria are to be considered. This information has been taken from RNIB Scotland's publication 'Let me Read It'.
It was mentioned that there is no RNIB policy on what is expected of schools, exam boards etc. It might be hoped that OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education) would pick up on bad practice, but it rarely visits the vi unit.
3.5 REVEAL, a bibliographic database, is due to be launched in September 2003. The database will include chapters, as well as complete books.
3.6 The group on jointly marketing library services is holding two roadshows on 7 May in Chesterfield and on 10 July in Bucks.
3.7 VAT is applied disproportionately to audio books, creating an anomaly; it is 0% on print books, but 17.5% on audio books. There are EU ramifications, as zero rating is disliked, but there seems to be a clear-cut campaign point. However, this cannot be pursued until it has been discussed with publishers.
3.8 David Owen reported that the battle over Public Lending Right on audio had finally been won, in that it was agreed it should be included. However, the war was lost.
3.9 NLB is organising a second 'Make a Noise in Libraries' in the Autumn. RNIB had been intending to run a similar initiative earlier in the year, encouraging their campaign supporters to visit libraries and do an audit by answering a few basic questions. After discussions, it was agreed to run both events at same time, but NLB would shift its planned week to avoid the party conferences.
4 Forthcoming Opportunities
4.1 European Year of Disabled People: a bus promoting this will be in the UK during June and July with an event in Trafalgar Square in August.
4.2 The Right to Read Campaign week is to be in October. There was discussion as to how best to co-ordinate with 'Make a Noise in Libraries' week.
4.3 Opportunity to take forward complaints that revision guides are not available in alternative formats.
4.4 In November, the BBC is running a 'Ten Greatest Books' poll, along the lines of Ten Greatest Britons.
4.5 There are likely to be several opportunities for debate in Westminster on access for print-disabled people, and for questions to be asked. RNIB is intending to create a steady stream of activity, utilising the interest of MPs generated by the Copyright Bill debates. Also, it will be necessary to engage the other parliaments, but manpower is short in Wales and Scotland; also the Northern Ireland Assembly is currently suspended.
5 Agreed Action:
5.1 The planned follow-up letters to the various government departments will go in the name of the consortium, with the signature of as many participants as possible.
5.2 We will try to build a large group of Charter supporters to be launched during the events in October.
5.3 'Make a Noise in Libraries' will now be a joint activity, with a date in October to be confirmed.
5.4 It was agreed to meet again on 3 June 2003.
Yes, it's that time of the year, and Talking Newspapers (TNs) have been sending in entries for the 2003 competition. COTIS is organising the judging again, and we are indebted to Avcom and Graff once more for supporting the competition so substantially by providing the prize money.
COTIS is learning from last year's experience in a number of ways, but in particular:
A major new addition: RAINMARK Accreditation
The experience gained means that COTIS is now ready to introduce the RAINMARK accreditation. This year, all tapes which meet the required standard will receive RAINMARK accreditation. This means that the accredited Talking Newspapers will be able to demonstrate to customers that their recordings meet overall quality standards in Reading, Audio, Identification and Navigation. This TN accreditation will be the first in a family of quality marks which will cover all formats, such as braille and e-text, produced as alternatives to print.
To give some idea of what the judges are looking for, COTIS provided a crib sheet based on the checklist published in On Track last year. It indicates some of the points which Talking Newspaper listeners have said are really important to them and on which the tapes will be judged.
Content has not been mentioned on the checklist because views on this vary greatly, and the key issue is that the content reflects what the majority of listeners to a particular Talking Newspaper want. For that reason, the accreditation scheme requires effective methods of customer communication to be in place. For the final round of the competition, however, content will play a large part.
Look out for the winners of the competition and the names of the Talking Newspapers with the new RAINMARK accreditation in the next issue of On Track.
Stop Press: The British Standards Institute (BSI) contacted COTIS following the In Touch interview with Colin Antwis about the work being done by COTIS to set a 'kitemark' for braille, audio, e-text and large print. An initial meeting with them on 25 April raised the exciting possibility of incorporating our work so far into a BSI Publicly Available Standard within a year. Much will depend on funding, but watch this space …
A reminder of the request in a previous issue of On Track for people who would like to help COTIS with its Accreditation Scheme: if you have views on what makes good, usable, 'accessible' information, let those views be taken into account when setting the standards. Also, if you think you might be interested in becoming a panellist, do please get in touch with COTIS. It is always easier to develop an understanding by talking, so if possible, do give us call, leaving your phone number and telling us when it would be convenient to ring.
by Linda Pearce, Editor
On Track brings to your attention details about equipment, materials and services that COTIS feels will be of interest to you. Please note that this is for your information only. COTIS is not endorsing them or making any recommendations. Equally, reviews are personal comments by the writers of the articles.
Please remember - if you would like to submit an article or send details of any forthcoming events which may be of interest to COTIS members, the latest dates by which material should reach the editor are:
18 September for October's issue,
6 January for January's issue and
1 May for May's issue.
Advertising Costs: ¼ page £30; ½ page £55; full page £110. 10% discount to COTIS members.
© Written permission to use any On Track article or other COTIS
material to be obtained from
The COTIS Secretary, Project Office, 67 High Street, Tarporley,
Cheshire, CW6 0DP, tel: 01829-733351 (answerphone), or Email:
ontrack@cotis.org.uk .
or from the On Track editor.
COTIS, Project Office, 67 High Street, Tarporley, Cheshire, CW6 0DP, United Kingdom.
Telephone: +44 (0)1829 733351
Email: administrator@cotis.org.uk
COTIS President: Sir John A. Wall - Charity Number 299024
COTIS Web Site last updated 24th June 2005