An approach to identify requirements for an iTV audio description service

Abstract

The Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) switchover may leverage the implementation of a variety of features and services that will allow users to take on an interactive role. However, among the future clients of DTT are a significant number of elderly and visually impaired people who can not entirely benefit from the TV content or possible interactive services. In this way, and considering that interactive television (iTV) services can contribute towards improving life quality of this type of users, it is important to apply accessibility, usability and design-oriented guidelines for the development of accessible iTV systems. In this context, this paper introduces a research related to universal design issues on the iTV scope. Beginning with the identification of the difficulties and needs of visually impaired users as consumers of television contents, this research aims to propose a set of requirements to develop an interactive audio description service that meets the needs of visually impaired users, following a universal design approach.