Read my lips
As on-demand programming replaces broadcast, deaf viewers are left out
CATCHING the latest episode of a television series no longer requires a reminder in the diary. British audiences, like those elsewhere, increasingly feed their TV habit using “on-demand” services like Sky, Netflix and Virgin TiVo. By one estimate, conventional broadcast television now accounts for less than half of the video consumed by 16- to 24-year-olds. It is through such an on-demand service that Kimberley Lucas’s boyfriend has lately been watching “The Wire”, a cops-and-robbers drama. But Ms Lucas, who is deaf, cannot join in. Whereas she could have watched the series with subtitles when it was originally broadcast, the helpful transcriptions have fallen away during the move online.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Read my lips”
From the August 27th 2016 edition
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