FCC Seeks Information on Accessibility of Children’s TV Programming

The FCC issued a September 7 Public Notice requesting input on the current accessibility of children’s television programming to children with disabilities.  Comments are due October 7; reply comments are due November 8.

Recent changes to the children’s television programming requirements have created some accessibility concerns because newly allowed short-form programming and optional use of multicast streams for some programming potentially mean that programs become exempt from closed captioning requirements.  The FCC is unable to independently assess the extent of closed captioning in such instances, which resulted in its request for comment. One potential outcome of this proceeding may be changes to the closed-captioning rules for certain children’s television programming.