Current Campaigns

Creative Europe/MEDIA funding to the film industry

Visually impaired persons enjoy films or documentaries as much as everyone else, but in order to fully understand them they need audio description and audio subtitling for what is shown on the screen.

Audio description communicates important visual content with spoken information inserted as a narrative between the dialogue and other programme sounds. Audio subtitling – also known as spoken subtitles – is the reading aloud of subtitles. As a complement – never as a substitute – to audio description, audio subtitling is especially useful to the visually impaired community in the case of foreign-language products that are subtitled rather than dubbed.

We believe that public funding and in particular MEDIA funding to the film industry should be granted only to projects that will create a version with audio description and audio subtitling. But as an intermediate realistic step, we ask that, for the period 2021-2027 the Creative Europe Programme and annual work programmes include audio description and audio subtitling among the selection and award criteria for MEDIA funding, and at least 25% of films that receive MEDIA production or distribution funding have an audio description and audio subtitling in the languages of the production.

 

View Creative Europe/MEDIA funding to the film industry

The Marrakesh Treaty

Currently, copyright law is a national jurisdiction which has the effect of preventing blind organizations from sharing books with neighboring countries, thus causing considerable unnecessary duplication of production of books in accessible formats. The treaty will considerably increase the availability of accessible books all over the world and support the mitigation of the predominant book famine. Currently only 5% of all published books in the developed countries and less than 1% in the developing countries are ever produced in accessible formats - such as braille, large print and audio – that visually impaired people and print disabled people need for equal reading enjoyment.

View The Marrakesh Treaty

Accessibility of lifts

In relation to the accessibility of lifts, lack of awareness regarding the importance of measures that allow people with a visual impairment to use lifts autonomously is a big problem. While it is broadly understood and accepted that certain specific requirements such as access without steps, a minimum door width or enough space inside the lift car are necessary requirements, it is not yet widely accepted that, for example, the usability of control devices is just as necessary to ensure the accessibility of the whole lift. Therefore, people with visual impairment often experience serious difficulties in using lifts.

View Accessibility of lifts