Television's transition to the Internet: Disability accessibility and broadband-based TV in Australia

Whereas entertainment has featured negatively in the broader NBN debate currently occurring in Australia, within the disability sector it has been recognised as revolutionary. Government, industry and technical analysts describe digital television, particularly that delivered via broadband, as poten...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ellis, Katie
Format: Journal Article
Published: University of Queensland, School of English, Media Studies & Art History 2014
Online Access:http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1329878X1415300107
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18314
_version_ 1848749708676169728
author Ellis, Katie
author_facet Ellis, Katie
author_sort Ellis, Katie
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Whereas entertainment has featured negatively in the broader NBN debate currently occurring in Australia, within the disability sector it has been recognised as revolutionary. Government, industry and technical analysts describe digital television, particularly that delivered via broadband, as potentially enabling to people with vision and hearing impairments through the more widespread provision of accessibility features such as audio description and closed captions. This article interrogates the approach to accessibility taken by two case studies of broadband-based television: Netflix and catch-up TV. Netflix, which is not officially available in Australia, is often presented as the future of television, while catch-up services provide an example of the current broadband-based television paradigm in this country. Although accessibility features may be available on broadcast television or DVD release, each of these forms of broadband-based television has either previously (Netflix) or currently (catch-up) stripped accessible functions to stream online. The discussion reflects on both activist interventions of people with disability and the industry standards.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T07:25:14Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-18314
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T07:25:14Z
publishDate 2014
publisher University of Queensland, School of English, Media Studies & Art History
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-183142019-02-19T04:25:59Z Television's transition to the Internet: Disability accessibility and broadband-based TV in Australia Ellis, Katie Whereas entertainment has featured negatively in the broader NBN debate currently occurring in Australia, within the disability sector it has been recognised as revolutionary. Government, industry and technical analysts describe digital television, particularly that delivered via broadband, as potentially enabling to people with vision and hearing impairments through the more widespread provision of accessibility features such as audio description and closed captions. This article interrogates the approach to accessibility taken by two case studies of broadband-based television: Netflix and catch-up TV. Netflix, which is not officially available in Australia, is often presented as the future of television, while catch-up services provide an example of the current broadband-based television paradigm in this country. Although accessibility features may be available on broadcast television or DVD release, each of these forms of broadband-based television has either previously (Netflix) or currently (catch-up) stripped accessible functions to stream online. The discussion reflects on both activist interventions of people with disability and the industry standards. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18314 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1329878X1415300107 University of Queensland, School of English, Media Studies & Art History restricted
spellingShingle Ellis, Katie
Television's transition to the Internet: Disability accessibility and broadband-based TV in Australia
title Television's transition to the Internet: Disability accessibility and broadband-based TV in Australia
title_full Television's transition to the Internet: Disability accessibility and broadband-based TV in Australia
title_fullStr Television's transition to the Internet: Disability accessibility and broadband-based TV in Australia
title_full_unstemmed Television's transition to the Internet: Disability accessibility and broadband-based TV in Australia
title_short Television's transition to the Internet: Disability accessibility and broadband-based TV in Australia
title_sort television's transition to the internet: disability accessibility and broadband-based tv in australia
url http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1329878X1415300107
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18314