Abstract
There are many international standardisation agencies working actively on producing technical requirements towards accessibility, both for physical environments and for media. Technology is developing at a fast pace to produce new interactions, which turn into new communication barriers: some avoidable. Taking into consideration accessibility standards from the design and requirement definition --the concept of “born accessible”-- would help towards native accessible technology. This article looks at existing standards related to accessibility and media communication. The first part of the article will revise the importance of drafting harmonised standards for accessibility in four main agencies producing accessibility standards: IEC, ITU, ISO and W3C. It will then outline how standards are produced and implemented at a European level by the European Standardisation Organisations (CEN, CENELEC and ETSI). The second part of the article will be organised by media accessibility services: subtitling, audio description, audio subtitling and sign language. Mention to easy to read as a new emerging accessibility modality, will also be made. The final part of the article will provide conclusions and directions for further research.
 Keywords: Media Accessibility, Standards, Accessibility services, Subtitling, Audio description, Audio subtitling, Easy to Read.
Highlights
Accessibility has been associated to two basic concepts when analysing person-environment relationships: usability and Universal Design (Iwarsson and Ståhl 2003)
In the case of Europe, laws need to be transposed to each country
This year will see the start of the legal impact on media accessibility across Europe with the Web Accessibility Directive (2016)
Summary
Accessibility has been associated to two basic concepts when analysing person-environment relationships: usability and Universal Design (Iwarsson and Ståhl 2003). Some voices have been raised to distinguish between “impairment effects and disabling barriers” (Lid 2014: 1344) and the possibility of moving from disabilities to Amartya Sen’s model of capabilities (Mitra 2006, 2018) This represents a departure from disability and accessibility towards usability and diversity pointing towards normalisation (Ellis 2016, Orero and Tor-Carrogio 2018, Agulló et al 2019). Universal Design (UD) is no longer a rehabilitation inclusive concept, but a proactive design production following the seven principles of User Design (UD)–which are good for all members of society (Molly Follette Story 1998) These days, accessibility is moving away from exclusive approaches towards a democratic participative society looking for diversity and inclusion (Taylor 2017). This accessibility state of the art is reflected in standardisation, where, for example, the Spanish UN media accessibility standards have the rights and exclusive approach to Subtitles for the Deaf (UNE 153010:2012) Audio Description for the Blind (UNE 153020:2005)
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