Accessibility Workshop March 28, 2011

(Rescheduled from February 28, 2011)

In preparation for the upcoming CRTC hearings concerning the license renewals of Canada's largest broadcasters, Media Access Canada (MAC) invites you to a workshop on accessibility in Canadian television at Toronto's Ryerson University March 28.

The workshop is designed to prepare organizations and individuals to participate in the regulatory process and to work with other government decision-making bodies to advocate for accessibility in electronic media. Opportunities for participating which are now on the horizon include the April 2011 CRTC hearing of the applications by CTV, Shaw and Rogers to renew their television licences, as well as a major CRTC policy hearing in June to consider its approach to vertical integration.

The workshop will:

• provide an overview of the current requirements for accessibility in broadcast television programming in Canada.
• present new statistics on accessible content
• offer an update of current work on standards for accessibility in electronic communications

You can review the workshop program here.

Some of the workshop presentations have been made available -- please note these are in PowerPoint format, but optimzed for accessibility:

• Overview of Accessibility in Broadcasting: CRTC Requirements for accessibility in Canadian broadcasting, Beverley Milligan
• Report on Closed Captioning — CAB Working Group, Charles Laszlo, CM, OBC, Ph.D., P.Eng.
• Towards a Canadian Accessible Content Best Practices Guide: partnership between MAC and Ryerson University, Deborah Fels, PhD., P.Eng.