India: Private Channels to Broadcast News, Shows with Sign Language

September 12, 2019

Soon, at least one news bulletin per day on all private channels will be broadcast with sign language interpretation. Other shows will be broadcast similarly once a week. This facility was provided only by Doordarshan until now.

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar announced on Wednesday that this was requested of industry bodies, and they agreed to it.

Announcing the the move “to enhance the accessibility of television programmes for the hearing impaired”, a government statement said it will be “done through the provision of captioning and Indian Sign Language”.

The minister said that all private news channels will carry a news bulletin with sign language interpretation at least once a day and all TV channels and service providers will run at least one programme per week with subtitles. He said that Doordarshan has news with sign language interpretation every day, and a “similar initiative” should start in all private channels. “We have requested this and they have agreed,” he said about industry bodies. “We have issued the required guidelines for it.”

Source: The Indian Express