Protest by Deaf Television Viewers

From the collection of

MACE is the strategic lead organisation for screen heritage for the East and West Midlands regions. An independent charity based at University of Lincoln, MACE preserves and makes accessible a collection of more than 100,000 historic moving images representative of the diverse cultures and histories of communities throughout the heart of England from the Lincolnshire coast to the Welsh border.

Protest by Deaf Television Viewers (Central News East)

Media Archive for Central England
Lenton
1987-10-29
Sound

We may take them for granted now, but subtitles on television had to be fought for.

Outside the Central Television studios In Nottingham, Anna Soubry meets people protesting about the lack of subtitles on news programmes. In the 1980s the subtitling of television programmes for deaf and hard of hearing viewers was slowly being introduced. However, the system relied on viewers upgrading to more expensive tv sets that were compatible with teletext - the ITV and Channel 4 teletext system being called Oracle.

Though viewers could see a selection of subtitled programmes, they tended to be scripted and pre-recorded dramas and comedies. Subtitling live programmes, such as news, posed technical challenges, with some broadcasters employing operators trained as court stenographers, who were able to type at the rapid rate required. It would be well into the early 1990s before subtitles were introduced on Central's regional news output, and then only on late-night bulletins from the Abingdon sub-region.

Protestors outside Central Television studios demand subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing.

People Power: Voices of Protest and Dissent in the Midlands

Getting the message heard, from the placard and megaphone to the campaign video.

These films celebrate the right to protest, with a look at how the campaigners of the 1980s reacted when they were met head on with a radical government sustained by strong electoral majorities. This collection also showcases campaigns that embraced the new medium of video, taking their battles to the next level with tapes of their own, free from television's editorial controls. The material in this collection comes from two sources: television and an independent video production company. On television we find a more genteel approach to activism, where studio discussions take centre stage. Away from television we look to the work of the Trade Union Resource Centre in Birmingham, which helped groups to get their messages across in their own way. So join us as we look back at life in the 1980s, in some ways a depressingly familiar place - with families struggling to survive on meagre incomes, the NHS in crisis, and the most vulnerable in society unprotected.

8 videos in this collection

The Labour Party and LGBT Rights

Coventry
1986-12-04

Máire O'Shea is Innocent

Birmingham
1985

Put People First

Birmingham
1983

Our Jobs are Not for Sale

Birmingham
1984

Whatever Happened to Student Protest?

Leicester
1982-02-08