2019 Volume 3 Issue 1 Pages 91-106
This paper discusses the current status and issues on television accessibility for people with visual and hearing disabilities in the United States, including the utilization of text generated by closed captioning and video description such as television access to deaf and blind people and media monitoring services. The paper gives a general explanation of closed captioning and video description, the type of viewers using these services, methods for creating closed captioning and video description, related laws and regulations, and then discusses issues on application of closed captioning and video description requirements on television programs and utilization of text generated by closed captioning and video description. As a suggestion to Japan's future policy, the paper concludes that measures must be discussed to rectify disparities between the amount of closed captioning and video description provided to disabled viewers, and to improve television accessibility for deaf-blind people, and a soft law approach formed by discussion among industry organizations, instead of a case law approach in the United States, is more appropriate for dealing with copyright issues that will arise when introducing a new business that is similar to the media monitoring business in Japan.
