Sign language on television
Encyclopedia
Sign language on television is the use of a signer
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...

 for a television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

me. The signer usually appears in the bottom corner of the screen, with the programme being broadcast
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...

 full size or slightly shrunk away from that corner.

Paddy Ladd initiated deaf programming on British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 television in the 1980s and is credited with getting sign language on television and enabling deaf children to be educated in sign.
In traditional, analog, televisions, many programs are repeated, often in the early hours of the morning, with the signer present rather than have them appear at the main broadcast time. This is due to the distraction they cause to those not wishing to see the signer. Some emerging television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 technologies allow the viewer to turn the signer on and off in a similar manner to subtitles and closed captioning
Closed captioning
Closed captioning is the process of displaying text on a television, video screen or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information to individuals who wish to access it...

.

Legal requirements covering sign language on television vary from country to country. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, The Broadcasting Act 1996 addresses the requirements for blind and deaf viewers.
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