MeAC – Measuring Progress of eAccessibility in Europe

Legislation/regulations

Analogue TV

The national public broadcaster provides public service on the basis of law (Laki Yleisradio OY.sta (1380/93)). The law imposes a duty on the public broadcaster to take into account the special needs of disabled people, though the details of the services are not regulated by the law.

The public broadcaster is obliged by law to produce services in sign language. It has news broadcasts on a daily basis in sign language on Channels TV1 and YLE 24 (digital channel).

There are no requirements for audio description in Finland.

Digital TV

Finland switched over to digital terrestrial television in September 2007. It is planned that subtitling will be increased in digital transmission and this is one of the objectives of the Towards Barrier-Free Communication action programme.

Other initiatives

Conversion of subtitling to speech in digital TV is a service provided by the Finnish Broadcasting Company and developed together with the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired. Cooperation is voluntary and still ongoing.

For commercial broadcasters, the license conditions include an obligation, to the extent possible and within reasonable limits, to take into account the special needs of people with disabilities. However there is no provision of subtitling for hearing impaired people by commercial broadcasters.

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