Home > About Ofcom > Corporate Structure and Governance > Older & Disabled > Notes of Meetings > Wednesday 5 July 2006

22|11|06

Minutes of the tenth meeting of the Ofcom Advisory Committee on Older and Disabled People Wednesday 5 July 2006

Present

Lydia Thomas (Chairman)

Janet Askham

Simon Cramp

Gareth Davies

Caroline Ellis

Fred Heddell

Jonathan Kaye

Suneel Shivdasani

Ross Trotter

John Welsman

In attendance

Paul Afshar , Ofcom

Robin Blake , Ofcom

Peter Bourton , Ofcom

Bradley Brady , Ofcom

Nic Green , Ofcom

Emma Love, Channel 4

Kevin McLaughlin, Consumer Panel

Jeremy Oliver, Ofcom

Leen Petrie, Consumer Expert Group

Paul Rogers , Ofcom

Jonathan Simon, Channel 4

Alison Walsh, Channel 4

Support

Julie Ross priest, P.A. to Simon Cramp

Cheryl Slater, speech to text writer

1. Apologies for Absence

1.1 Apologies were received from Mike Whitlam, Denis Carter , Bob Twitchin , Consumer Panel and Kevin Carey , Content Board. The Chairman informed the members that Sally Greengross had resigned from the Committee. She expressed her gratitude for the contribution made by Sally Greengross to the Committee during her period of membership.

2. Minutes

2.1 The minutes of the meeting on 26 April 2006 were agreed and signed by the Chairman.

3. Matters arising

3.1 Member recruitment. The Chairman noted that the terms of office of five Committee members were due to expire on 31 March 2007 . She was advised that Ofcom would be considering the issue in the autumn.

3.2 ACOD visit to Northern Ireland . Mike Whitlam, Suneel Shivdasani and Jonathan Kaye attended a meeting of the Ofcom Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland on 8 June. A report of the event had been circulated to members.

3.3 ACOD Bulletin. The recently distributed Bulletin was thought to be a useful means of keeping members informed of developments outside of their meetings. It was agreed that members would send in any items of interest for inclusion in the Bulletin to the ACOD Support Team.

3.4 Organisation of agenda papers. A number of suggestions were made about the organisation of agenda papers. The Chairman requested that the Support Team review the access requirements of members for agenda papers.

3.5 COST 219ter. Ross Trotter would be representing ACOD at the COST 219ter event on 16 January 2007 ; other members interested in attending should contact the Support Team.

3.6 Patientline. The members were advised that Ofcom was awaiting a response from the Department of Health.

4. Update on TV Access Services, easily available apparatus and Section 10

4.1 The members were informed that reports from broadcasters for the first quarter of 2006 showed most broadcasters well on track to meet their targets by the end of the year, with many exceeding their obligations significantly. Any broadcasters showing slippage at the end of the second quarter would be reminded of the need to comply with their targets. It was also reported that, as a result of the annual review, some 90 channels would be required to provide access services in 2007 (as against 76 in 2006), despite a significant increase in the subtitling obligations (from 10% to 35%).

4.2 The working group members were thanked for the contribution they had made to the consultation on the Code on Television Access Services. Ofcom would now consider the various responses, with a view to publishing a statement in late September or October. The members were advised that broadcasters had devised a safe area in television pictures within which subtitles could be displayed on the wide variety of televisions that were available. Increasing the size of subtitles within this area could mean that some words would not be visible. It was stressed that, while Ofcom did not have responsibility for access services in programmes made available online, it was interested in the practicalities of how they could be made available. Ofcom was considering holding a discussion forum on subtitling for both disability organisations and broadcasters later in the year.

4.3 The members welcomed Ofcom’s initiative to hold a discussion forum on subtitling and offered the following additional observations

that it was better to show subtitling within a black box rather than a transparent background as the contrast made it easier to read for some visually impaired people
that Ofcom should consider whether its remit extended to promoting research to ensure that manufacturers complied with obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (‘DDA’)
it was thought that manufacturers would gain an awareness of the needs of disabled people if they were to employ a disability adviser

4.4 The members were updated on Ofcom's work on Usability, including a round up of current projects. They were advised that Ofcom would be canvassing ACOD and other stakeholders on current priority usability issues to feed into the annual planning process. The members were advised that Ofcom had previously set out the criteria by which usability work would be considered, given the limited resources available, and that it was important for Ofcom to monitor developments in the industry and elsewhere to avoid overlap in efforts. In the short term, addressing usability issues around digital switchover (DSO) would be a priority for Ofcom, and this would include addressing the ease of installation of digital television equipment. Ofcom would be producing an update on usability issues in the next few months.

4.5 The members welcomed the priority attached to usability issues connected with DSO by Ofcom, but thought that attention should also be directed at the development of new communication services (such as VOIP). The members noted that the development of a speaking EPG service accessible though a mobile phone would not be a viable solution for every visually impaired person, but would assist some. It was their view that Ofcom needed to encourage manufacturers to consider the needs of older and disabled people from the earliest stage in the development of new services.

5. Consumer Expert Group

5.1 The members were briefed on the work of the Consumer Expert Group ( CEG ). The CEG had been set up by the Government in 2003 to advise it and (from 2005) Digital UK on:

the content of its planned communication with consumers to explain why DSO is happening
ways of ensuring that the message reached all consumers – and in particular those who are socially isolated
communications for support scheme projects
to assess what role CEG and other consumer groups could play in communicating DSO
to raise any issues that might arise for consumers in relation to the planned implementation of DSO

5.2 The membership of CEG included groups such as RNIB, National Consumer Council, Help the Aged, RNID, VLV, TAG , Citizen Advice, Sense, Action with communities in Rural England and Wireless for the Bedridden. To date, CEG had issued two reports covering the following subject areas – supporting vulnerable consumers after switchover and equipment issues.

5.3 CEG had made a number of recommendations to the government on a technical specification for the design of suitable television equipment and the scope for the targeted assistance scheme. People registered blind or partially sighted and those in receipt of a means tested benefit would be eligible for assistance. CEG had recommended that the targeted help scheme should be available from nine months before switchover in each region with follow up monitoring visits taking place up to 18 months afterward. The Government was also considering whether people aged 75 or over should be automatically eligible for assistance.

5.4 The members noted that:

there was a danger that those people who declined to take up means tested benefits that they were eligible for would slip through the net
the technology for digital equipment was still under development which meant that any specification adopted had to be sufficiently general to make it ‘future proof’
a level of media literacy was required by users of digital receivers in order to accept upgrades
there were parts of the United Kingdom where Freeview was unavailable and that the level of assistance would have to extend to alternative technologies such as Freesat or IPTV

5.5 It was agreed that members would notify the Support Team of any further views they might have for onward transmission to CEG .

6. Consumer Protection on the Internet: implications for older and disabled people

6.1 The members were advised that Ofcom’s survey of Media Literacy indicated that there were high levels of concern about the Internet and the recent publication of Online protection: A survey of consumer, industry and regulatory mechanisms and systems was intended to provide a broad evidential basis to inform a debate about the most appropriate ways to address the consumer protection challenges raised by the Internet. The survey would cover:

a diverse range of systems and mechanisms – individual operators, national and internal bodies and their respective roles and responsibilities for online and offline protection
a specific focus on content – assessing what contributions to safety can be made by the operators as well as through the efforts of bodies such as Childnet and the Internet Watch Foundation

6.2 Ofcom had carried out a brief survey of different approaches to regulating key consumer protection issues on the Internet (such as security and privacy and protection from illegal or inappropriate content or malicious software) and concluded that:

the attempts at consumer protection on the internet at both national and international level have met with varying degrees of success to date
effective consumer protection on the internet would require more significant levels of international cooperation than currently exist
successful consumer protection on the internet has generally involved a much higher degree of co- and self-regulation than has been the case for other media
the internet inevitably places a much greater responsibility on consumers to take action to protect themselves

6.3 The members raised the question of what security there would be for people who are visually impaired. It was pointed out that there was a legal requirement under the DDA to make information accessible. Ofcom acknowledged that this was a problem area and indicated that it would work with industry to develop appropriate standards. It was suggested that Ofcom should consider recommending to the Government the adoption of a tighter regulatory framework which would assist the industry to make their services more accessible and to protect consumers from obscene material.

6.4 The members were advised that the Content Board had agreed the direction to be taken forward for media literacy and Ofcom was awaiting Ministerial approval. The primary area of focus would be addressing an identified greater need for consumer empowerment in internet and mobile content. Qualitative research would need to be carried out to find out more about the expectations of consumers and the extent to which they understood their rights and responsibilities. It was hoped that the research would include people with learning disabilities as well as that of older people. Ofcom was seeking to establish a close working relationship with interested stakeholder groups such as the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, Help the Aged and Age Concern to ensure that all the relevant areas for research had been identified.

7. ACOD sub-group updates

7.1 Reports were made by three ACOD subgroups – the working group on research, the DSO sub group and the TV access services group.

7.2 The research sub group was meeting regularly with Ofcom research colleagues to ensure that it was fully informed about current activities. It had identified digital switchover (DSO) as a key area of interest. The sub group had asked Ofcom to draft a research brief for discussion at the next meeting which would include ballpark costs and timings. The Consumer Panel was also holding a seminar on older people and communications technology and an ACOD representative was attending the event and would report back.

7.3 The DSO sub group had established a regular dialogue with internal parties within Ofcom and with Digital UK – their main area of interest was the help that would be available to older and disabled people during switchover. Members were asked to feed in their ideas on how the digital tick quality assurance mark could be developed.

7.4 The TV access service group had been formed to respond to the Ofcom consultation group and, having completed the task was now disbanded. The Chairman thanked the members for the production of a high quality response.

8. Channel 4 presentation on Disability Portrayal and Representation

8.1 Three representatives from Channel 4 attended the meeting over lunch to give a presentation on disability portrayal and representation. The members welcomed the steps being taken by Channel 4 to ensure disability awareness amongst its staff, in particular, the initiatives being taken to make available a number of training opportunities specifically targeted at disabled people.

9. Numbering

9.1 The members were briefed on the progress made by Ofcom in its numbering review since the publication of the consultation document in February. Over 200 responses had been received to the consultation and the following priority issues had been identified to be covered in a statement to be issued on 27 July:

Geographic numbering. The proposals for conserving numbers were well supported and it was confirmed that geographic numbering would be retained; however overlay codes would be used as a backstop
NTS/Premium Rate Services. There was general support that revenue-share services should take place in a simplified numbering structure beginning with ‘08/09’. There was strong consumer support for ‘03’ to be used for non-revenue share services
Personal numbers (‘070’). There was broad agreement that Ofcom needed to address the current abuses of ‘070’ personal numbers but mixed views on whether to open up ‘06’ for personal numbers. Further analysis was needed to determine the extent of legitimate demand for personal and individual numbering services
Consumer protection test. There was support to the proposal that companies/businesses who have abused customers should not be allocated numbers

9.2 The members welcomed the changes for 08/09 numbers and expressed their disappointment that any change to 070 numbers would be delayed for a period of three years. When members visited the Ofcom Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland they had been made aware of a telephone content scam which currently avoided the network of telecommunications regulation. It was thought that older consumers might be particularly vulnerable to this practice and Ofcom was asked to consider what could be done to protect consumers.

10. Any other business

10.1 The Chairman reported that Janet Askham and Caroline Ellis would accompany her when she attends a meeting of the Content Board in October.

10.2 The Chairman would be attending the Ofcom Strategy Day in September and she welcomed advice from the members on the following areas to feed into Ofcom’s strategy making process:

Older people
Learning disabilities
Sensory impairments

10.3 There would be a ACOD stakeholder event in the early evening following the next Committee meeting on 31 October 2006 . Members were invited to think about the issues to be raised at the event and the groups to be invited and send their thoughts to the Support Team. The Support Team would be circulating details of an Ofcom Forward Planner for the next quarter

10.4 Members were asked to feed in any suggestions they might have for the October agenda to the Support Team by the end of August. The members expressed their thanks to the Support Team for the organisation of the annual ACOD dinner on 4 July.

There being no other business the meeting closed at 2.50pm.