Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure equitable access to (a) digital resources and (b) videos for the deaf community in the UK.

We want to build a world-leading digital economy in which no one is left behind by the digital revolution. That means ensuring that as many people as possible can reap the benefits of being online and the technologies that can transform our lives, benefit society and drive prosperity and growth.

However, we are aware that for disabled people, poor design of apps or websites - which does not take disabled users into account - remains a significant issue. This is why, in early 2022, DCMS collected evidence about the nature and scale of the inaccessibility of private sector websites. We are now exploring how the government can effectively intervene and will report back in spring 2022.

This work will complement the government’s 2018 publication of the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations. Led and monitored by the Government Digital Services (GDS), these regulations require UK public sector websites and apps to be made accessible, unless it would be disproportionate to do so.

In relation to video-on-demand (VoD) content, the Digital Economy Act 2017 amended the Communications Act 2003 to give the Secretary of State the power to impose statutory requirements on on-demand services regulated in the UK in relation to access services - including subtitling and signing. Following recommendations from Ofcom in December 2018 and July 2021, officials are considering their proposals and will set out next steps for implementation in due course.