Improving Accessibility for People with Visual Impairment

The NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute has been conducting research for the realization of the “automated audio description” service that automatically provides auxiliary voice explanations of television content for people with visual impairment, in collaboration with the NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories (STRL) and other organizations. Broadcasts with commentaries for visually impaired audience are much less disseminated than subtitled broadcasts are. On top of this, the coming Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics have triggered more attention on services for people with impairments. As part of efforts to find out what is needed for the smooth utilization of broadcasting services by people with visual impairment and for the enhancement of accessible broadcasts, the authors conducted a web questionnaire surveying visually impaired audience on how they perceived an experimental program — a recorded episode of Kyou no Ryouri Biginaazu (Today’s Menu for Beginners) with voice explanations using “automated audio description.” The results of the survey show that different auxiliary explanations and services are being required, depending on the degree of impairment. Based on the analysis of the web survey results, the paper discusses the current status and the future of the audio description and other commentary services.