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Abstract

The 1996 Broadcast Act created quotas for the provision of subtitles, audio description and signing for the first time in UK television. While it proved technically feasible to integrate subtitles and audio description as closed digital television services that could be turned on and off, the technical challenges of creating a closed signing service proved to be too great and so signing was delivered as an open service.

This paper places the various attempts to create a closed signing television service in their social, political and technical contexts, explaining how they came about and why they did not succeed. It first gives an introduction to sign language and the history of its repression. It examines the reasons for the very varied estimates for number of sign language users in the UK and charts the path towards the legal recognition of sign languages. This paper also draws a distinction between natural sign languages and the various signing codes invented for educational purposes. It then discusses the different models of disability and how they relate to Deaf people with their distinct languages and culture. Next the paper covers the history of sign language on ±«Óătv television and the struggle to have programmes made for and by Deaf people in their own language.

The following section examines the issues faced when interpreting programmes into sign language, from screen layout to choice of interpreters and the language used. The paper then charts the events leading up to the inclusion of accessibility quotas in the 1996 Broadcast Act, the initial attempts to create a signing avatar, led by the ITC, and the response of the Deaf community to the results. My work at ±«Óătv R&D began at this point. We only had a few months to demonstrate a viable, video-based solution. This soon proved impractical and so open signing began as an overnight service in May 2000. The paper details the progress made up to May 2000 and includes my documentation from that time. The paper then follows the subsequent work and the different approaches that all ran into fundamental technical barriers. It then finishes with a look at more recent attempts to create signing avatars for other, non-broadcast applications along with other related projects. It concludes with a look at how the move from broadcasting to streaming could enable the provision of signing at peak time using parallel streams and the way in which sign language has become more visible in mainstream programming.

Dedicated to the memory of Dr Terry Riley OBE - the first Deaf Editor of See Hear.

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