Accessibility in TV & Streaming
\nFrankfurt am Main, October 23, 2026. How well prepared is the media industry for the new legal requirements for accessible services? Deutsche TV-Plattform (DTVP) provides a comprehensive answer: Its new report “Accessibility in TV & Streaming” documents the state of the art and draws a clear conclusion. The market has adapted well to the new requirements.
\nWith the Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) and the Interstate Media Treaty (MStV), new requirements apply to the accessibility of media services. The report by DTVP’s Accessibility Task Force brings together for the first time how content providers, media platforms, and device manufacturers are jointly implementing these requirements, and how the individual components interact.
\nThis very interaction is the strength of the report: Within DTVP, broadcasters, platform operators, and end-device manufacturers work together, enabling the entire chain from production to the screen to be considered. The report is structured around the central components of accessibility: audio description for blind and visually impaired people, Clear Speech for better speech intelligibility, subtitles, German Sign Language, as well as the topics of discoverability, user interfaces, and user presets.
\nThe report also shows where artificial intelligence is already being used: for example, in the automated generation of “Clear Speech” or, in the future, with signing avatars for German Sign Language. At the same time, it identifies open issues, including the inconsistent signaling of accessibility features across the various standards and the still-missing standardized labeling of Plain and Easy Language.
\nIn advance, the findings were presented to representatives of organizations for people with disabilities, including the German Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted, the German Association of the Hard of Hearing, and the social association VdK, in order to incorporate their comments.
\nDownload
The report “Accessibility in TV & Streaming” is the result of the Accessibility Task Force in DTVP’s Media over IP working group and is now available to download free of charge.
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