Resources on accessibility best practice

This page includes links to resources that may help support broadcasters and on-demand providers in making their programmes accessible. While Ofcom does not endorse the specifics of content included on external websites, this list was put together following extensive consultation with user groups, industry and accessibility experts.

Ofcom intends to update this list every six months so please get in contact with us if there’s anything you think we should add.

• Ability Net
• The Audio Description Laboratory’s (ADLAB) project website, including its publications page
• The Audio Description Association
• The BBC’s Accessibility for Products section of its website
• The BBC’s Accessibility Research and Development section of its website
• The BBC’s Best Practice Guide to Sound Mixing, Improving Sound Quality and Dialogue Audibility.
• The BBC’s Guidance on Visually Impaired and Hearing Impaired Audiences
• The BBC’s Mobile Accessibility Guidelines
• The BBC’s Subtitle Guidelines and 2015 research on subtitle speed
• The British Deaf Association’s website, including its Help and Resources page on sign-language
• The British Dyslexia Association’s Dyslexia friendly style guide for written material
• The British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust including its research pages
• Coimisiún na Meán’s report into a standardised approach to setting audio description dip values
• The Committee of Advertising Practice’s (CAP) statement on accessibility of advertisements and guidance on the use of superimposed text in television advertising
• The Communications Consumer Panel, including its access to Broadcast and On-Demand Content report and think piece on Making Communications Services Inclusive and Accessible
• The UK Digital Television Group’s Usability and Accessibility Guidelines
• FWD-Doc (Filmmakers with Disability), in association with Doc Society’sToolkit for Inclusion & Accessibility: Changing the Narrative of Disability in Documentary Film for Inclusion & Accessibility: Changing the Narrative of Disability in Documentary Film
• Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training’s (EASIT) project
• The Galician Observatory for Media Accessibility, including information on the NER Model and subtitling speeds
• Enhancing Audio Description’s project
• The European Blind Union Handbook for High Quality Audio Description on Screen (part one)
• The Incorporated Society of British Advertisers’ (IBSA) Accessible Advertising Guide
• The Independent Theatre Council’s (ITC) Guidance on Standards for Audio Description.
• The ITU’s (UN specialised agency for information and communication technologies) accessibility webpage, including their webpage on digital accessibility and paper on the future of accessible audiovisual media services, tv and video programming.
• Kruger, J., Wisniewska, N., & Liao, S. (2022). Why subtitle speed matters: Evidence from word skipping and rereading. Applied Psycholinguistics, 43(1), 211-236.
• Macroblock Ltd and the School of Digital Arts’ report for Ofcom on object-based broadcasting (2021)
• Mencap’s guide on how to make written information accessible to those with learning disabilities
• Micineinclusivo’s website on inclusive cinema
• Netflix’s Audio Description Style Guide
• Netflix’s English Timed Text style Guide
• Ofcom’s Diversity in Broadcasting Hub
• Ofcom’s survey on TV viewing among BSL users (2021)
• Penny’s article on strategy and language to tackle diversity in ITV’s audio description
• RIDC’s research report for Ofcom on Audience expectations of access services across TV and Video-on-Demand services
• Romero-Fresco and Fryer’s Accessible Filmmaking Guide
• Romero-Fresco and Dangerfield’s article on accessibility
• The Royal National Institute of Blind People’s website, including key statistics about sight loss and research into AD for different genres (see page 10 of this consultation response) and recommendations on colour and contrast for people with sight loss
• The Royal National Institute for Deaf People’s website, including facts and figures on hearing loss and tinnitus
• The Royal National Institute for Deaf People’s Subtitle It report
• Scope’s website, including its article on accessible fonts and readability
• Scope’s The Big Hack Survey on video-on-demand streaming and accessibility
• Sense’s website, including deafblindness statistics in the UK
• Screen Skills’ Access Coordinator Training
• The Makaton Charity’s website, including the About Makaton section
• Turn on the Subtitles’ website, children’s subtitling style guide and list of research resources on designing subtitles to improve children’s literacy
• The TV Access Project (TAP) launched in response to the Underlying Health Condition campaign. The broadcasters and streamers involved are Amazon Prime Video, BBC, Britbox, Channel 4, Disney + UK, ITV, Paramount, Sky, STV and UKTV.
• Unlimited’s “Demystifying Access” toolkit (particularly relevant are the sections on how to integrate audio description, subtitles and sign language interpreting during the production process)
• Usability and Accessibility research section of Ofcom’s website
• W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• W3C’s Media Accessibility User Requirements