The agency is eager to help people with special needs through law.
The State TV and Radio Broadcasting Committee of Ukraine (State Broadcasting Committee) published for public discussion a draft law, which implies amendments to some Ukrainian laws in order to improve access to information for people with hearing problems.
According to the explanatory note of the document, Ukraine ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; therefore, it should focus on strengthening social protection and support of people with disabilities.
The document was laboured for a long time: the draft law was first submitted to the Government in February this year, and in March was sent back for refining along with the Ministry of Information policy of Ukraine. After their meetings, the representatives of the State Broadcasting Committee, the Ministry of Information Policy, the Ministry of Social Policy, the Commissioner for the President of Ukraine for the Rights of People with Disabilities and organizations representing people with impaired hearing, concluded that the draft law was to be altered completely.
See also: TV for the Hard of Hearing appears in Ukraine
The changes prepared by the participants of the Ukrainian National Assembly of Disabled, the National Committee for Disabled Sports, the Ukrainian Society of the Deaf, the Sign Language Interpreter Council of the Kiev organization UTOG and the Sign Language Laboratory of the Institute of Special Pedagogy under the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, were introduced in the initial version of the draft law.
The resulting document recommends as follows:
• to fill the broadcasting licence application with information about the volume of content adapted for people with impaired hearing;
• to oblige TV channels, irrespective of their ownership and subordination, to adapt by translating into sign language and/or subtitling statements of the country’s senior officials, information about emergency events threatening life or health of Ukrainian residents, as well as movies, broadcasts and programs;
• to adapt political advertising broadcasted on TV and the Internet;
• to adapt political advertising and TV debates, polls results regarding elections and election results broadcasted on TV and the Internet;
• to adapt the proportion of total daily broadcasting (also taking into account the variety of audiovisual product) of no fewer than 10% (except for advertising) by 2017, 20% – by 2018, 50% – from 2020;
• to oblige the TV broadcasters or their appointed representatives to bring them to responsibility for inadequate sign language translating and/or subtitling TV content.
