In order to enhance the accessibility of television programmes for the hearing impaired, Union Minister Shri Prakash Javadekar announced the implementation of Accessibility Standard for TV Programmes for persons with hearing impairment. This will be done through the provision of captioning and Indian Sign Language.

Shri Javadekar announced that all news channels will carry a news bulletin with sign language interpretation at least once per day and all TV channels and service providers will run at least one programme per week with subtitles / captioning.

दिव्यांगों के लिए मोदी सरकार ने एक अहम निर्णय लिया है,

जिन्हें सुनने में दिक्कत होती है उनके लिए #DDNews रोज #SignLanguage के आधार पर एक बुलेटिन प्रकाशित करता है ऐसी ही पहल सभी निजी चैनल भी करें यह हमने दरख़ास्त की है और उन्होंने भी मंजूर की है @PrakashJavdekar pic.twitter.com/BNLc0gX11p

— पीआईबी हिंदी (@PIBHindi) September 11, 2019

Live news, live and deferred live content/events such as sports, live music shows, award shows, live reality shows, live debates, scripted/ unscripted reality shows, etc. and advertisements/ teleshopping content have however been exempted.

This will be implemented from 16th September, 2019. The overall implementation of the Standards will be done in a phase wise manner in the next five years. The policy will be reviewed after two years.

Shri Javadekar also announced that Accessibility Standards for films for visually impaired through provision of narration facility in between dialogues are also under examination.

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AP