TV SHOW BÜRGERANWALT: NOW WITH SUBTITLES

The Austrian public broadcasting company ORF expands its services for deaf and hearing impaired persons. This includes the popular TV-Show “BürgerAnwalt” in which Ombudsman Peter Kostelka and Ombudswomen Gertrude Brinek and Terezija Stoisits present current cases. In the coming months more and more TV programmes will offer this service including sports and information programmes.

All viewers of the public broadcasting programmes in Austria have to pay charges, although only few TV-Shows are suitable for deaf and hearing impaired people, who indicated the programme as absolutely insufficient. The Austrian Ombudsman Board has repeatedly pointed out that international obligations as well as the Austrian Constitution demand equal treatment of persons with disabilities. This also concerns television programmes, states Ombudsman Kostelka who is in charge of monitoring this area.

“The closed captioned television programme is an essential progress regarding the rights of persons with disabilities which has been stipulated by the AOB again and again” states Ombudswoman Brinek.