Online Streaming with Descriptive Video. Crave, get with the program!
So I published the below article back in 2016, when the streaming app was called CBC TV; it's now CBC Gem. I can't believe that was 3 years ago already and we're still waiting for the likes of Crave to make their streaming media descriptive video-enabled. I understand there may be some technical challenges, but 3 years is ample time to develop a solution. I mean, even Amazon Prime video now has some titles in Canada with DV-enabled content. I think what irks me the most with all of this is when you ask these companies online why they don't have the DV content, they are as quiet as church mice. Is it a political thing? Even CRTC has no response when I ask them on Twitter. Anyway, as you can see, it really does get my goat. Without further ado, a bit of positive cheer for CBC and their fully accessible streaming app.
CBC TV App… Doing the right thing:
I was recently updating the apps on my iPhone; something I frequently do since I’m at around 173 installed apps. I really do need to do some major cleaning
up. Anyway… while I was waiting for the updates to complete, I noticed that the CBC TV app had an update. It had been a long time since the last one,
so I decided to read the update notes. Turns out, it was a huge boon, accessibility-wise.
Quote taken from the app description:
“Greater Accessibility - As part of our ongoing commitment to make our programming available to all Canadians, the new CBC TV app now supports VoiceOver.
In addition to Closed Captioning, we have included Described Video audio tracks (when available), enabled with a simple tap.”
So, there you have it. Easily accessed descriptive video. Traditionally, descriptive video has been located on the second audio programming channel,
(SAP). The issue with that has always been, how does one get to that feature. It’s never been standardized. For example, on one of our TVs at home,
you get there by cycling through the language audio channels; 1 toggling button, that’s fine. I can handle that. On the other TV however, it’s hidden
under a sub menu found under options and then audio. You got to love product designers. I sometimes question their logic, or lack thereof; but I digress.
Don’t think descriptive video is worth looking into? My wife actually turns it on when she leaves the room, or when she’s busy doing something else,
so she doesn’t miss any salient points in her Coronation Street. To be honest, I don’t use descriptive video all of the time, but I like having the
option of turning it on and off at will.
CBC certainly isn’t the first organization who has added full Voiceover support and descriptive video to their app. Take for example Netflix. Their
descriptive narration is simply amazing. We recently watched Daredevil and Jessica Black and I marveled at the quality in unobtrusive nature of their
narration style. I’m pretty sure the narrators even enjoyed themselves.
At any rate, I hope that other organizations that have streaming video will follow suit and integrate accessibility into their app and make a similar
commitment to access for all.
You can find the CBC TV app by following this link:
While I'm not excusing it, the technical limitations with Crave audio seem deeper than just no DV. I frequently read posts on Reddit saying that Crave does not support 5.1 surround. So it seems like they can't do multiple audio tracks at all. Just stereo, nothing more. While that doesn't excuse the lack of descriptive audio, it does make me feel better, in a small way, that it's not that they offer multiple audio tracks (stereo, 5.1, 7.1, etc) and are just neglecting us. They don't seem to have that capability at all. But on the other hand, that makes it even more surprising that nothing has changed in this many years.