Good AI Content

Everyone deserves the chance to enjoy TV and movies, including people with disabilities.

Akshat Baldwa, a law student at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) who is blind, is passionate about making entertainment accessible for everyone.

He and a group of friends, including three other blind individuals and one deaf person, have taken legal action in the Delhi High Court.

Their goal is to make sure all films in theaters, on TV, and on streaming platforms have accessibility features like Audio Description (AD) for those who are visually impaired and Same Language Captions (SLC) for those who are hearing impaired.

Taking Action:

Baldwa reached out to Yash Raj Films (YRF), one of the biggest film production companies in India, via email.

He requested that their new film, Tiger 3, include AD and SLC.

Just four days later, he received a positive reply from YRF.

They agreed to add these features for the film’s release on Amazon Prime Video and for its airing on satellite TV.

This quick response from YRF shows a significant shift in the Indian film industry.

This change is influenced by several important laws and court rulings from 2016 to 2023. These include:

1. Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016: This law guarantees everyone the right to entertainment.
2. MIB’s Accessibility Standards (AS, 2019): These standards require that at least half of all entertainment content on TV must be accessible.
3. Delhi High Court Ruling (2023): The court ordered YRF to provide AD and SLC files for their popular film, Pathaan, to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
4. Recent Court Order: The court instructed the MIB to appoint a special officer to handle requests for accessibility features in films.

Looking Ahead:

Thanks to these developments, accessibility in films is set to expand from a few projects to about 2,000 films certified by the CBFC each year in various Indian languages.

The precedents set by Pathaan and Tiger 3 suggest that the MIB and CBFC are now more likely to require AD and SLC files for all certified films.

The MIB has also proposed new draft accessibility standards for films.

Challenges in Implementation:

However, having a good policy is not enough; it needs to be implemented effectively.

For instance, while TV networks have started using SLC on serials, the compliance has been low.

Four years after the AS, 2019 was established, only about 8% of the top five languages’ TV serials included SLC.

In other languages and genres, the numbers are even lower.

One major reason for this lack of compliance is that the AS, 2019 has not yet been officially announced.

While the MIB has encouraged the entertainment industry to improve, many TV networks are still falling short.

Star TV is leading with around 26% of its serials featuring SLC, setting a high standard.

In contrast, other networks like Zee and Sony are far behind, and Colors has just started with one SLC program.

Government-owned Doordarshan has not implemented these accessibility policies at all.

Consequently, private networks like Sun, Gemini, and Udaya have yet to offer accessible programs.

Currently, the total number of accessible TV serials across all languages is about 60, which is not enough.

Conclusion:

So far, encouragement has brought some progress, but to truly accept and comply with accessibility standards, the MIB needs to officially announce the long-awaited AS, 2019 for TV.

This step will help speed up the creation of accessibility standards for films and ensure their proper implementation.

Everyone should be able to enjoy movies and TV, and with continued advocacy and support, we can make that a reality.