Vision-impaired subscribers slam “discriminatory” Foxtel service
Blind Foxtel subscriber Amanda Heal says that all she wants for Christmas is to be able to better access the TV shows she pays for.
- Published by David Knox
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Frustrated vision-impaired subscribers to Foxtel have criticised the Pay TV provider because the IQ personal video recorder provides nothing in the way of audio assistance.
National consumer group Blind Citizens Australia has called on Foxtel to add audio indicators to its Programming Guide and IQ recording facilities, similar to BSkyB’s audio-enabled set top boxes in the UK.
One subscriber Amanda Heal says that all she wants for Christmas is to be able to better access Foxtel shows.
She has been pressing the issue via a disability discrimination complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission.
“Despite two years of negotiations, Foxtel still won’t commit to the development of an accessible IQ set top box with audio features so that I can know what is showing next on TV or pre-record programs using the program planner,” she says.
“The program guide on their website is inaccessible and I have been told that I should record content from my iPhone – a process which is very time consuming. The irony is that I pay the same amount of money to subscribe to Foxtel as everyone else and yet I get half the service.”
But the Australian Human Rights Commission is not a Court and Foxtel did not attend any in-person conciliation. Amanda Heal has been forced to withdraw her complaint or take the matter to the Federal Court at her own expense.
“My choices are to continue to pay for a service that is only partly accessible to me or to miss out entirely. People should not be forced to take a matter to the Federal Court in order to access a basic service,” she says.
Audio descriptions relate action, scenery, costumes, facial expression and body language to blind viewers. BSkyB audio descriptions are now available to 20% of their programming as well as the SKY Talker which vocalises programming information.
A Foxtel spokesperson told TV Tonight, “Foxtel provides its service to over 1.63 million subscribing households and offers around 300,000 hours each year of closed captioning across 106 channels making Foxtel’s programming more accessible to the deaf and hearing impaired community than ever before.
“In Australia we understand the Government is looking at trialling audio descriptors on the national broadcasters. Foxtel will examine the results from any such trial.”
Robyn Gaile, Executive Officer of Blind Citizens Australia called on Foxtel’s new CEO Richard Freudenstein to help resolve the matter.
“Whilst we appreciate that Foxtel may be looking into these issues as part of their future development of their services, current subscribers who are blind or vision impaired are receiving a second class service which is discriminatory.
“With the appointment of Richard Freudenstein as the new CEO of Foxtel, we are very much hoping that Mr. Freudenstein will bring his expertise from BskyB to the Australian market to ensure a service that everyone can access.”
20 Responses
This is like a blind person buying a book and then complaining that it doesn’t come with an audio book version. As someone who has faced and dealt with serious discrimination, this isn’t discrimination, it’s someone looking for things to complain about.
Surely something could be done using the Internet.
The iQ could be programmed online using voice recognition.
Why not work with the Blind Assoc, and build one ?
I am kind of the tech for my elderley relatives and it never ceases to amaze me how unfriendly technology is for elderley ppl. Remotes with tiny buttons are extremely difficult for ppl with poor eyesight and bad arthritis.
Foxtel does a remote for Kids which is actually quite good for Elderley ppl.
I had full sight for about 14 years then one night i lost it all.. Completely blind for a few days and now am lucky enough to have gained a very , very small % back. For me, BCA should be going after the government to make changes and not a single person go after a company. If it’s law it will be done,
We who are blind or vision impaired have products to help us and make our every day lives that little bit easier. At certain traffic lights you will here a beep type of sound to alert blind or vision impaired people when it is safe to cross.. Certain mobile phones will talk to you, certain comuter software tells you what is on the screen, reads web pages, all things that some people with sight take for granted.
Why shouldn’t there be a service / sytem that allows blind or vision impaired people to use FTA or pay tv to it’s maximum.?? We can and do provide a service to the deaf community, which i fully support but nothing to the blind or vision impaired community??? go figure.
Walk a mile in a blind or vision impaired persons shoes before you make judgements on what we can ,can not ,should ,should not be doing. Grab a blindfold, wear it for a full day and see how you go
p.s sorry for any mistakes,
Why doesnt she just cancel her service and use the money to buy Blu Rays, all of them have audio descriptions these days.
She should vote with her wallet, and pay for products that actually provide what she wants
To request such functionality is perfectly reasonable, as is Foxtel’s response, but for Blind Citizens Australia to call the provider discriminatory because is it not (yet) available is unfair. Ms Heal knew at the time of subscribing it was not and was at liberty to make a consumer decision then whether it suited her needs. She is also not receiving a “half” a service, she is receiving the service that existed at the time she subscribed.
I do hope that this functionality does become available in this country, however I also hope that those involved in such requests can see the damage inflammatory comments and name-calling can do to their cause.
Personally I agree that there should be more accessible services on TV — more subtitling, particularly on multichannels, and audio descriptions on, for arguments sake 10% of programming would be fantastic.
@ DavidO
Being someone in a wheelchair I would like to point something out.
We as a general rule have no need for rollercoasters. However people with disabilities do have the right to every source of entertainment availible within reason. While yes Foxtel is a private service the fact remains that this service does not exist anywhere. This means that for every elderly person, Visualy Impaired person and illiteratrate person is thereby diadvantaged. Before you state that this argument is moot I ask you this if we as a people are not allowed to suggest a universily applicable function and thereby question the merit of a function how do we know the capabilities of said function. Yes disability does provide limits but these limits only exist within the bounderies set by the majority. You think tv is reserved for those with vision ergo it does not warrent consideration that it is this mindset rather than the lack of service which she is trying to combat.
It is not a human rights issue but one of equal oppotunity within all sectors of the austrailian lifestyle
Well said.
Not the nicest comments in my opinion, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. Imagine having the same argument with people who are deaf? “Sorry, you knew you were deaf when you subscribed so don’t complain about the lack of subtitles”.
Bearing in mind that the digital Foxtel boxes were based upon the Sky Digital, Sky+ and Sky HD equipment, surely there’s no reason they can’t support this?
Even though Australian content may not have audio description, foreign programming bought in does (in the country of origin) for example BBC, ITV and Channel 4 programming that’s shown on UKTV and various other Foxtel channels. Therefore surely this is possible on Foxtel?
Sorry this is going to sound harsh but wake up lady! Did she make enquiries before signning up for the services? Cancel the service, donate the coin to visual rsearch.
poor lady, as if life isn’t hard enough for her. all that she’s asking for is a better solution to help her get more involved with the tv.
@DavidO I think that is a terrible thing to say, how can you compare riding at an amusement park for reasons of safety and logistics, this is not impossible to implement BskyB has,she should have the right to watch TV, and furthermore as aforementioned Australia is well behind the rest of the world in the implementation of this service. For the money payed to foxtel and the FTA channels profit the lack of decent close captioning and audio services is disgusting. It may not exist yea
I can understand Ms Heal’s frustration as I have friends with vision impairment and am aware of their struggles and tools they need to access things that sighted people take for granted.
But wouldn’t Ms Heal or the frustrated members of Blind Citizens Australia have enquired that Foxtel was offering such a service before subscribing and committing to a long-term contract? Don’t sign up and then cry foul that it isn’t meeting what is a specific need? This is something that we all have to consider when signing contracts that the service we’re seeking is going to meet our needs. If it doesn’t meet the criteria then don’t sign up.
And I agree, Foxtel is hardly a “basic service” or a basic human right.
Foxtel is not a perfect service by any means. There are channels that are on Foxtel that should not be and channels that are not on Foxtel and should be. And if you notice carefully, Foxtel lacks channels for high end culture like opera, etc.
One example. Foxtel has lots of channels for movies, But only one for “ethnic” world movies.
Another example. Foxtel has lots of music channels. But only one part time channel for ballet, classicial music, musicals and opera in STUDIO which I would not call a full time arts network. Ovation (now no longer on Foxtel) did that job much better than STUDIO.
Despite the flaws that Foxtel brings, Foxtel is overall still worth getting overall. I have Foxtel in my house. And I love it a lot.
If the service isn’t good, then don’t use it and don’t pay for it. As much as I dislike Foxtel anyway, they shouldn’t be forced to provide an extra service, they are a private company after all. They should target government legislation regarding communications, not Foxtel. These sort of cases make a mockery of human rights.
Is Foxtel a “basic sevice”!?
That must be incredibly frustrating for some. Unique features for the blind or deaf still are not very well implemented across various types of media or are regulated properly to ensure a guaranteed service to them.
Australia is way behind on this sort of thing – the UK has mandated descriptive audio on a minimum of 10% of all programming since (IIRC) 2000, and various networks in the US (notably PBS) have carried descriptive audio or 2nd language tracks on some content since the late 80’s / early 90’s. A couple of years ago the UK reviewed the possibility of upping the level to 20%, although I don’t know offhand what the final decision was.
Interestingly, after the US went digital, the amount has dropped to almost 0% since they failed to reserve a specific stream / PID for secondary audio programming in the ATSC spec. The DVB-T spec used in Aus does, IIRC, mandate a particular PID for secondary audio – but no-one uses it.
Basically, there’s no excuse – except money, & the generic crapness of the FTA and Pay-TV players in Australia – for not at least providing some level of descriptive audio on programmes where it is already available.
Am I missing something? None of the FTA networks offer this service do they? Why should Foxtel? Aren’t the FTA’s also discriminating? Makes no sense to me.
Without wishing to sound callus, I think Ms Heal needs to accept that being blind brings some limitations, watching TV for instance. I think this is another case of people with disabilities refusing to accept that some things are simply out of their grasp. The local amusement park doesn’t allow for wheelchairs on the rollercoaster? Must be discrimination. Foxtel doesn’t supply an audio service that doesn’t exist in this country? Clearly discrimination…