26/05/2026
✍ Last week, on the occasion of , EBU co-signed alongside Inclusion Europe, the European Disability Forum, European Federation of Hard of Hearing People and the European Union of the Deaf a joint letter calling on the European Commission to advance in the upcoming AVSMD revision.
We all urge to strengthen Article 7 on accessibility as a key provision to implement the in the audiovisual sector, i.e., move beyond an obligation of progressive improvement and define measurable and enforceable obligations.
As identified by the UN CRPD Committee (United Nations Human Rights) in its 2025 concluding observations to the EU, Article 7 in its current form is too general, lacks timelines and targets for implementation, and does not cover more modern forms of audiovisual media such as social media and video-sharing platforms.
And this, combined with the fact that the European Accessibility Act lacks specific media accessibility requirements, has resulted in divergent and most often unsatisfactory approaches to accessibility in the AVMS sector.
“When media content is not accessible, persons with disabilities are denied their most basic human rights”, the joint letter points out. Indeed, media content is central to cultural life, political participation, freedom of expression and opinion, access to information, and appropriate protection in disasters.
👉 Read the full letter: https://tinyurl.com/2xfstwu9
