Media Accessibility Specialists

Media accessibility services and research refer primarily to persons with disabilities. Therefore, they require a thorough knowledge and consideration of their needs and capabilities. In the “turns” of media accessibility research, the first one has revolved around the primary end users and their full recognition, which has then spurred a number of studies on comprehension, appreciation and reception. A currently important turn is concerned with media accessibility professionals at many levels: their competences, ad hoc training, professional recognition, the dedicated tools and their applications. All these issues are at the core of a lively debate across the world, as no homogeneity seems to be visible. Nonetheless, there is increasing demand for accessibility professionals, in various media fields. After analysing a number of currently available training programmes, this chapter reports on the results of a questionnaire conducted among media access companies and institutions, across the EU and in the UK. The aim is to map the competences that are required of accessibility professionals, the tasks they are called to perform, the tools they use and, last but not least, the participation of persons with different abilities in the whole process of design, testing and evaluation of media access services.