What does the Digital Economy Act 2017 change for visually impaired people?
The Digital Economy Act 2017 requires audio description, subtitles and sign language to be available when viewing programmes through on demand or catch up TV services.
Currently most audio description on broadcast TV never makes it on to the catch-up services. This includes services such as BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, All 4 and Demand 5. The law only applies to UK Broadcasters and so does not cover services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
The availability of audio described programmes is expected to start increasing on catch-up TV.
