BBC
In October 2005 the BBC held a fundamentally important meeting between their top decision makers and representatives of 24 key disability organisations. This Disability Leaders seminar aimed to open a fresh dialogue on portrayal, recruitment and how technology can improve access. This was an attempt to restructure the BBC's policy on disability which in 2003-2004 had been unsatisfactory both on and off the air. The BBC representation on the air (during peak hours) was less than one percent, with only 2.7 percent of their entire staff with a disability, significantly lower than the 10.1 percent of the UK population who have a disability. These targets emerged from the conference, the introduction of more portrayal of disability on the TV, to have improve the number of disabled staff working at the BBC to 4% by 2007 and more broadly the launch of a new diversity strategy.
Since then, the BBC has set about achieving these targets and has delivered a number of programmes that placed disabled characters at the heart of mainstream television as well as documenting disability issues and celebrating achievement.
Radio 4 specials included Peter White's Sony award-winning series Blind Man's Beauty and paraplegic writer Andrew McLay's dramatisation of his own story in Watch the Spider. The success of BBC Asian Network drama Silver Street in challenging misinformation around mental illness was recognised when it beat ITV1's Heartbeat and BBC One's Doctors to win the soap prize in the 2005 Mental Health in the Media awards. And online, campaigning website Ouch! covered hundreds of disability issues, from deaf/blind travel to non-PC disabled stand-ups.
Sunday Grandstand covered the first Paralympic World Cup from Manchester in May and BBC Two's Beyond Boundaries charted the remarkable stories of 11 physically disabled people as they attempted to trek 220 miles across Nicaragua. The series built its audience to two million and registered an exceptionally high audience appreciation of 87 percent (BBC Pulse survey). This is just a portion of the BBC's recent programming which is based around or involves people with disabilities.
Progress has been made against the targets (which the BBC review annually) for inclusion of people with disabilities on the BBC. Furthermore, coming in 2006 are Magnificent 7, a single BBC Two drama about a family of autistic children; Soundproof, a deaf thriller, also for BBC Two; and a BBC Three series of I'm With Stupid – commissioned via the BBC Comedy North talent scheme.
But as an array of speakers and lobbyists told the seminar, there was still much to do in building awareness among programme makers and commissioners about certain issues, such as that of dyslexia, which affects six million people which had not appeared in the BBC's schedules, Similarly there was a feeling that targets for audio description could be higher. Peter White, disability affairs specialist and radio presenter, who is visually impaired argued that alongside the inclusion of disability in mainstream production, there should be more specialised content; this has been carried out in programming such as See Hear, Radio 4's You and Yours and Peter White's program In Touch. The BBC have also stated that if wishes for further specialised programming were made, then these wishes would certainly be considered.
The BBC is committed to making its online, onscreen and on air services accessible to all its audiences. It is currently working towards ensuring 100% subtitling across the entire network by 2008 and is expanding its audio description and signing service. It is working to ensure that bbc.co.uk is 100% accessible to disabled users. As regards radio, placing content on-line enables greater accessibility. The BBC's public information can be obtained in audio, Braille and large print and other accessible formats.
Action has been taken to ensure that disabled people can access the BBC's output and be audience members. Eighty per cent of the output of BBC One and BBC Two is now subtitled and the BBC provides over 30,000 hours of subtitling on the other major BBC channels - BBC News 24, BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC and CBeebies.
Our highly trained subtitling teams across the UK are equipped to deal with every conceivable situation, and are frequently required to supply pre-recorded subtitles right up to the moment of transmission. Besides pre-recorded subtitles, we cover all the major live sports tournaments such as snooker, football, tennis and golf, as well as one-off events.
Audio description is an ever-expanding service offered across a number of channels including BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC and CBeebies. In addition to the subtitling service, signing gives deaf viewers another form of access. BSL is provided for 3% of the BBC's output, covering a variety of mainstream broadcasts and live news. BBC.co.uk is constantly being updated to ensure access.
BBC commercial video although not currently accessible will be more so once VHF is phased out and DVDs become the standard format, as they allow for subtitling and audio description.
All studios have been fitted with induction loops and laid out in line with the BBC's access standards, so that disabled people can take part in audience shows.
Finally producers of BBC programmes have access to the Production Handbook, which gives then advice and guidance on meeting the needs of disabled contributors such as actors. [i]
Furthermore in consultation with the Broadcasting and Creative Industries Disability Network (BCIDN), Radio Times has developed a new web-based listings service for disabled viewers and listeners. Within the next few months, users will be able to search for all programmes on all channels that offer audio description, sign language and sub-titles.
Under its new diversity strategy, the BBC aimed to make disability much more than an HR issue, explained director of BBC people Stephen Dando. The new approach was to place disability at the heart of the BBC's business by making the link between creativity and insight within the workforce and the BBC's ability to engage all UK audiences. A publicity campaign, featuring profiles of disabled BBC staff, was launched in April with the aim of encouraging more people with disabilities to apply for BBC jobs. But Dando acknowledged that there had been little progress in the last year towards the four percent target, at a time when the BBC was shedding posts.
From Nick Tanton, principal R&D engineer, the seminar heard about BBC involvement in coming access technologies that would allow, for instance, provision of a spoken electronic programme guide (EPG). Closed signing via broadband was also being investigated. For Ashley Highfield, director of new media, consistency in delivery would be key: 'We need to do a lot more on working out how to make spoken guides available on satellite, cable, freeview and the internet,' he said.
Director of television Jana Bennett welcomed portrayal targets but also the ambition, within the new diversity strategy, to improve understanding of disability among programme producers. 'We need to go beyond this level of discussion now, giving confidence and knowledge to our producers and researchers so they are inspired to do things they would otherwise not think of doing.'
The BBC partnered Channel 4 and The Actors Centres to launch the Talent Fund for Disabled Actors – a bursary scheme designed to increase the pool of disabled acting talent available to TV casting directors. Through auditions in London , Newcastle and Manchester , 25 actors were selected to attend BBC masterclasses, given by leading TV directors, and Actors Centre training. As a direct result, actor Mark McCubbin, who is physically impaired, won the part of a psychiatrist in ITV's new Trial and Retribution drama. All the actors have been helped to develop their professional portfolios and a DVD compilation of their work has been distributed across the industry. A number have since auditioned for TV parts and others were invited to meet the BBC comedy team at a special session in London .
The first ever business benchmarking exercise on disability for the public and private sector scored the BBC significantly higher (90 percent) than the average (57 percent) of 80 UK organisations taking part. The results from Employers Forum on Disability found that the BBC was most successful in working to ensure disability equality in areas like training, promotion, workplace design and employee support. Development of equality goals in marketing was singled out as a future priority. The BBC have already planned another Seminar for 2006 so the BBC's progress can be reviewed whilst maintaining contact with disability groups, to help further improve their services.