This is an ADLAB PRO video.
ADLAB PRO is a project funded by the European Union.
This video is made available to you
on a Creative Commons licence.
-Hello. I’m Nina Reviers, from the University of Antwerp,
and in this ADLAB PRO video
I will discuss legislation regarding Audio Description.
This is Unit 10 in Module 1, "General Introduction".
Legislation is a complex and extensive field.
AD regulations exist on the global, European,
national and local levels.
In addition, regulations on the national and local levels
sometimes differ from one country or region to the next.
In this video we, therefore, focus on four types of legal requirements:
Legal requirements on the international level.
Legal requirements on the European level.
Types of legislation on the local level.
Legal requirements concerning authorship and AD.
The most important document on the international level
when it comes to accessibility
is the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
This UN convention was the first ever document
with an international scope that established legally binding
minimum standards regarding the rights of people with disabilities
and served as a catalyst
for the development of accessibility services,
including accessible media services.
On the European level, there are two important documents:
The European Accessibility Act
and the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.
The European Accessibility Act primarily wants to improve
the function of the European market for accessible products
and services by removing barriers
created by divergent legislation.
The Act deals with a very broad range of products and services,
including audiovisual media.
The Audiovisual Media Service Directive governs
EU-wide coordination of national legislation
on all audiovisual media.
The directive contains one article on accessible services,
stating that, and I quote
“Member States shall encourage media service providers
under their jurisdiction to ensure that their services
are gradually made accessible to people
with a visual or hearing disability”.
In other words, the AVMS is a non-binding agreement
and countries are free to implement these recommendations
the way they see fit.
National and local legislation regarding accessibility
and AD tends to vary across countries.
If you want to know more
about existing legislation in your country,
you can take a look at the website of Mapaccess.org:
A site that is fully dedicated to media accessibility
and includes a so-called Accessometer,
which shows the current status of legislation
in the different countries of the world.
On this website you can see that the international and European
legal requirements are implemented locally and regionally
in different ways with varying degrees of enforceability.
We can broadly distinguish three types of measures:
Firstly, there are laws at the national and/or local levels,
applying to both public and private broadcasters.
The first European country to implement a law including AD
was the UK with the 1996 Broadcasting Act.
A second type of regulation is sector-driven laws,
such as specific agreements with Public Broadcasters,
which are implemented in many countries in Europe.
Examples are Flanders, where AD and audio-subtitling
have been included in public broadcaster
VRT’s yearly management contracts since 2007.
Finally, there are different types of measures that promote AD
in areas other than film and television as well.
Examples are, again, Flanders,
where organisations can obtain funding
through the Participation Decree to render an event,
such as a theatre performance or sports event,
accessible to specific groups including persons with sight loss.
The above mentioned regulations mandate different volumes of AD:
some include actual quota, such as the UK and Poland,
others, such as Flanders, only stipulate
that AD has to be provided.
In some countries, regional laws apply
and, as a result, certain regions make a bigger effort than others.
An example is the Flemish region of Belgium
and the state of Bavaria in Germany.
This may be one of the reasons why the AD landscape in Europe
is still diverse and the offer is fragmented.
To conclude, I want to point out that it is important for describers
to be aware of legal requirements regarding authorship and copyright.
Copyright requirements for AD are unclear,
but be aware of the fact that an AD producer
should acquire permission to describe an audiovisual product
from the owner of the copyright to the film,
unless the AD will be distributed in a non-commercial context.
The AD producer, transfers copyright permission to the audio describer.
Describers in their turn, have authorship of their work,
and permission should be acquired if producers want to use your AD.
Inform about legal requirements in your country or region
and make sure these issues are covered
in your contracts and agreements!
-The preparation of this presentation
was supported by ADLAB PRO.
Audio Description:
A Laboratory for the Development of a New Professional Profile
financed by the European Union
under the Erasmus+ Programme,
Key Action 2,
Strategic Partnerships.
Project number:
2016-1-IT02
KA203-024311.
The information and views set out in this presentation
are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect
the official opinion of the European Union.
Neither the European Union institutions and bodies
nor any persona acting on their behalf
may be held responsible for the use
which may be made of the information contained therein.
This was an ADLAB PRO video.
ADLAB PRO partners are:
University of Trieste,
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona,
University of Antwerp,
Adam Mickiewicz University,
RTV Slovenia,
Utopian Voices,
Soundfocus and Royal National Institute of Blind People.
ADLAB PRO was funded by the European Union.
This video was made available to you
on a Creative Commons licence.