Home > About Ofcom > Corporate Structure and Governance > Older & Disabled > Notes of Meetings > 25 January 2006

11|07|06

Note of the eighth meeting of the Ofcom Advisory Committee on Older and Disabled People, 25 January 2006

Attendance

Present

Mike Whitlam (Chairman)
Lydia Thomas (Vice Chair)
Janet Askham
Simon Cramp
Gareth Davies
Sally Greengross
Fred Heddell
Jonathan Kaye
Suneel Shivdasani
Ross Trotter
John Welsman

In attendance

Paul Afshar, Public & Political Relations Executive, Ofcom
Leila Agyeman, Research Analyst, Strategy & Market Development, Ofcom (minute 9)
Peter Bourton, Senior Policy Executive, Ofcom (minute 5)
Bradley Brady, Public & Political Relations Manager, Ofcom
Kevin Carey, Content Board
Vanessa Hyland, Head of Research, Strategy & Market Development, Ofcom (minute 9)
Justin Le Patourel, Manager, Market Intelligence, Ofcom (minute 7)
Carmel McLaughlin, Head of TV Planning & Licensing, Ofcom (minute 8)
Fiona Miller, BT (minute 6)
Neil Paterson, Policy Adviser, Ofcom (minute 8)
Dominic Ridley, Consumer Panel Policy Executive, Ofcom
Paul Rogers, Secretariat, Ofcom
Louisa Shand, Project Liaison Officer, Ofcom (minute 7)

Support

Julie Whitaker, speech to text reporter

Meeting Notes

1. Apologies for Absence

1.1 Apologies were received from Bob Twitchin, Consumer Panel, Kevin McLaughlin, Consumer Panel and Denis Carter. Sally Greengross apologised for only being able to attend part of the meeting.

2. Introduction of new Members

2.1 The Chairman welcomed two new members to the Committee - Suneel Shivdasani and John Welsman.

2.2 The members noted that the biographies of existing members were out of date. Bradley Brady said that they should be updated on an annual basis.

3. Minutes

3.1 The minutes of the meeting were agreed and signed by the Chairman.

4. Matters arising

4.1 Dates of NRAC meetings to be circulated to members. Bradley Brady would be contacting the Nations and Regions Advisory Committees to find out when ACOD members (two or three) could attend one of their meetings in 2006. Bradley Brady also advised the members of the following changes in meeting arrangements for 2006:

4th and 5th July (moved from 18 July) – a training event would take place on the 4th (with an evening dinner). The Committee would meet the next day and a stakeholder reception would be held in the afternoon
31 October – the meeting had been rearranged from the 18th of that month to coincide with a meeting of the Ofcom Board

AP1 Bradley Brady to confirm arrangements for ACOD representatives to attend NRAC meetings

4.2 Stakeholder Panel. The Stakeholder Panel could not be set up until the USO consultation document had been published (due end of March). Ross Trotter would be the Committee’s nominee on the Panel.

4.3 Speaking EPG demonstration. This had yet to be arranged.

AP2 To be carried forward

4.4 New Voice Services guidelines. The consultation document would be published in February. The members would be advised of its publication by email.

AP3 Bradley Brady to notify members of publication of consultation document

4.5 Ofcom Contact Centre statistical information. OCC had advised that it was unable to provide meaningful statistical information to ACOD on complaint issues raised by older and disabled people. Bradley Brady would investigate.

AP4 Bradley Brady to contact Jackie Caspary

4.6 Nations and Regions Audit The members were advised that the audit was intended to look at the different levels of technological penetration from region to region in England and in each of the Nations and did not have a specific focus on older or disabled people. The second phase of the audit would cover this approach. Kevin Carey said he had read a draft separate report which had a focus on disability. Paul Afshar undertook to investigate and report back to the Committee as he thought that publication would not take place until the second phase.

AP5 Paul Afshar to investigate

4.7 DSO sub group. The DSO sub group had not met since October. It was agreed that the group should meet in March.

AP6 Paul Rogers to arrange meeting of DSO sub group

4.8 Briefing note on attending EU events on matters of interest to ACOD. Kevin Carey said that he had nothing to report. Jonathan Kaye had attended a TCAM meeting in Brussels in an independent capacity. The meeting focused on standards of design and usability for telecoms equipment, and services; Frank Phillips from Ofcom also attended. The remit of TCAM would be extended from February to include television access services and television in general.

4.9 Patientline. The members were advised that, as a consequence of an Ofcom investigation into the provision of telephone services in hospitals, a number of options were being explored by Patientline and the Department of Health to reduce the cost of telephone calls made by and to patients in hospitals. Bradley Brady was asked to draft a letter of support to the Ofcom Board from the Chairman.

AP7 Bradley Brady to draft letter.

4.10 Jonathan Kaye reported that he had accepted an invitation to attend an informative BBC disability day.

5. Television Access Services Review

5.1 Peter Bourton, Senior Policy Executive, Content and Standards attended the meeting to brief the members on Ofcom’s proposals for the Television Access Services Review and to give an update on accessible television.

5.2 Ofcom had commissioned MORI to carry out quantative ‘market sizing’ research as well as qualitative research with focus groups of access service users for the Television Access Services Review to find out about viewing patterns and preferences. Disability groups and broadcasters were consulted in framing the research. The key proposals from the Review included:

that audience share and affordability was a sound methodology to determine whether a channel should provide access services
that because the broadcasting market is highly competitive it would not be appropriate to increase the 1% of turnover ceiling for broadcasters on the amount that can be spent on access services
that there would be an increase in the maximum speed of subtitling for pre-recorded programmes from 140 wpm to 180 wpm
that a minimum height of 21 lines for subtitling on all digital services should be adopted and broadcasters encouraged to adopt techniques to make letters appear sharper
that views of interested parties would be sought on where the image of the signer should be located in the screen (currently in the bottom right hand corner)
that from 2007:
- subtitling obligations will grow from 10% to 35%
- audio description targets will rise from 4% to 6%
- signing quotas will double from 1% to 2%
- the current take up for audio description services made it premature for Ofcom to recommend changes in the target for audio description

5.3 A full discussion on the proposals took place in which the Committee:

welcomed the estimate that around 80 channels could be required to provide television access services from 2007, notwithstanding the increase in the subtitling targets to 35% that would apply to many broadcasters. However, the Committee noted that if future viewing habits changed (for example, because of growth in on-demand programming), there could be fewer linear television channels meeting the current criteria. The Committee asked Ofcom to monitor the situation carefully, and consider whether changes might be required in future;
endorsed the proposal to clarify what the Code meant by ‘common ownership’, in order to avoid the risk that broadcasters might use changes to the structure of ownership to reduce or avoid obligations to provide television access services;
agreed that it was appropriate for the revised guidelines on standards to focus more on outputs than inputs, but asked that Ofcom do what it could to encourage manufacturers and broadcasters to secure a technical means by which viewers could increase the size of subtitling on digital television services, as was possible with Teletext subtitles on analogue television. Members pointed out that viewers with dual impairments, including those with Usher’s Syndrome, particularly benefited from this capability;
recommended that the guidelines should make clear to all broadcasters that announcements of public interest (such as warnings of severe adverse weather or other emergencies) should be made accessible to all viewers, regardless of whether the broadcaster was subject to the Code;
recommended that the guidelines should stress the importance of securing subtitling that was as closely synchronized with the original speech as possible, rather than setting out an ‘acceptable’ delay, as the current guidelines did;
noted that, in setting a maximum speed of subtitling for pre-recorded programmes in the guidelines on standards, it was impossible to choose a maximum level that would meet the needs of all users. The Committee wanted broadcasters to bear the needs of all subtitle users in mind but agreed, subject to consultation, that users were likely to prefer subtitles that gave the fullest possible access to the content of speech; and
agreed, in the light of indications from research, as well as feedback from viewers, disability organizations and broadcasters, that it would make sense for the consultation paper to prompt a debate on whether the current arrangements for signing programmes best met the needs of users, or whether a consensus could be reached on alternative arrangements. The Committee pointed out that it would be important to consider a range of factors, including the cultural significance of sign language.

5.4 The Chairman thanked Mr Bourton for attending the meeting and answering the questions raised by the members.

6. BT presentation on Digital Inclusion

6.1 Fiona Miller, National Manager, Age and Disability Action, BT, attended the meeting to brief the members on BT’s campaign for digital inclusion. The three year programme aimed to:

educate and engage – through working with Age Concern to increase fixed and mobile ICT facilities and training of volunteers in order to encourage more older people to try out the internet
engage new services/technology – to make ICT more accessible through the production of tailored guides and development of new services (such as streaming audio and information in BSL on the web)
incorporate inclusive design – through working with the Centre for Inclusive Technology and Design to develop a generic toolkit and to develop good practice guidelines for call steering which recognise the additional barriers experienced by older or disabled customers

6.2 The members offered the following suggestions to Ms Miller:

that people on low incomes suffered exclusion because they did not have bank accounts and were unable to demonstrate their credit worthiness
that no mention was made in the presentation on the opportunities offered by convergence
that age should not be a determining factor in deciding whether a person was suffering exclusion
that the growth of VOIP presented a conflict of interests for BT as it gave consumers a cheap option to conventional telephone calls
that only people who are technically qualified should be trained as volunteers
that older and disabled people should be encouraged to use community based services
that issues of inclusiveness should be taken into account at the outset of designing a new product
was BT researching voice recognition software to convert sign language
what assistance could BT offer to older and disabled people in terms of gaining access to the internet through the provision of equipment or training

6.3 Ms Miller made the following responses to the points raised by the members:

that she did not think there was a conflict of interest with BT’s traditional fixed line market and the development of new technologies which have the opportunity to provide additional benefits
that that BT’s approach to assisting older and disabled people was through the provision of information to enable choice and engage people in the digital age rather than by providing equipment
it was BT’s view that the internet presented social spin off benefits to older and disabled people by helping them to avoid isolation
on the issue of ‘volunteers’ BT wanted to recruit ‘younger older’ people (who were likely to have used ICT in their working life) so that they could act as ambassadors to older people.

7. Ofcom Annual Plan 2006/07

7.1 Justin Le Patourel, Manager, Market Intelligence, Strategy & Market Developments and Louisa Shand, Project Liaison Officer, Project Office attended the meeting to listen to views of members on Ofcom’s draft Annual Plan. The draft Plan identified nine priorities for Ofcom during April 2006 to March 2007 and was open to consultation until 10 February 2006.

7.2 The members offered the following comments on the draft Plan:

that the Plan was an important opportunity for Ofcom to promote its Disability Equality Scheme
there was too much use of jargon in the Plan which made it difficult to understand
that the Plan should be available in a range of formats for greater access
that the issues raised in the Plan were very complex and it would be easier if Ofcom produced simpler documents which pointed the way to more complex information
the report acknowledged that communication costs were increasing – Ofcom should carry out research into costs relating to accessibility
increasing communication costs meant that some services which had been provided for free (such as sport events) were now available on a pay per view basis and people on low incomes were being excluded
Ofcom needed to be seen to be responding to social trends – such as the increasing use of the internet for shopping

8. Digital Switchover

8.1 Neil Paterson, Policy Adviser, Strategy & Market Developments and Carmel McLaughlin, Head of TV Planning & Licensing, Spectrum Policy Group, attended the meeting to update the members on digital switchover issues.

8.2 Carmel McLaughlin outlined the working relationship between Ofcom and Digital UK, the body set up by the government to promote switchover.

Ofcom was represented on the digital switchover programme group (other members included DTI, DCMS and Digital UK) which met monthly. The workstreams of Digital UK included:

Government regulatory
Ofcom regulatory
digital equipment
housing and property
consumer and market research
consumer liaison
communications
transmission network
targeted help

8.3 ACOD had set up a DSO sub group and it was agreed that Carmel McLaughlin should be invited to the next meeting. It was also agreed that details of the working relationship between Ofcom and Digital UK should be made available to the Committee. It was also agreed that details of Digital UK’s communications campaign should be made available to the Committee.

AP8 Paul Rogers to set up next meeting of the DSO sub group
AP9 Paul Afshar to provide organization chart
AP10 Neil Paterson to provide copy of communications plan

9. Research

9.1 Leila Agyeman, Research Analyst and Vanessa Hyland, Head of Research both from Strategy & Market Developments attended the meeting to brief the members on the representation and portrayal of disabled people on analogue terrestrial television and to discuss the Committee’s proposed research programme.

9.2 The key findings of the research on the representation and portrayal of disabled people on terrestrial TV were:

l2% of sampled programmes in 2004 represented people with disabilities. Less than 1 person in 100 in the sampled programmes had a disability;
since 2002, fewer people/characters with disabilities have fulfilled major roles in sampled programmes; those fulfilling minor roles has remained stable and those in incidental roles has increased;
the most commonly represented disabilities were generally those that are most easily recognised (mobility, sensory impairment and physical disability)
people with disabilities were more likely to be portrayed as older people, or children
disability was ‘central’ or ‘relevant’ to the majority of representations of people/characters with disabilities in the sampled programmes

9.3 It was agreed that the findings of the research would be considered at the next meeting of the Committee’s research sub group. The research group had met twice in 2005 and three areas for potential research had been identified:

Public Service Broadcasting – to gain an understanding of how particular groups will be affected if PSB is left to the market to provide
Usability – issues around equipment design, do people want easy to use equipment and is there a market for it
Typetalk – how is this service being used? What was the level of awareness of its existence, what are the perceptions of users of the service?

9.4 It was agreed that the research group would consider at their next meeting whether the proposed areas for research reflected the priorities of the Committee. It was also agreed that a representative from the Consumer Panel’s research group be invited to the meeting.

AP11 Paul Rogers to organise meeting of the research sub group. Meeting to take place before the end of February.

10. Any other business

10.1 A review of the meeting took place. It was agreed that, to make the most effective use of the limited time available, that the agenda should be limited to a maximum of four subjects. Apologies were made for the late delivery of some papers for this meeting. The Chairman requested that an induction programme be prepared for the two new Committee members.

AP12 Paul Rogers and Bradley Brady to devise induction programme for the new members.

10.2 There being no other business the meeting ended at 4.10pm.

Chairman