BBC told to do more for colour blind people

I'm sure the BBC do more for the colour blind than other broadcasters, but if you couldn't read the graphics for whatever reason you'd listen to the presenter. I'm sure you can also get adaptors for your TV.

Of course it must be frustrating for the colour blind, but really they're not missing much. The graphics feel constructed from lego rather than designed. Red was always used to highlight important information, now literally everything on the screen is classed as important.

Television has it's limits. The website is accessible, they advertise it and continue to improve it, I don't know what more the BBC can do apart from further crapify their graphics for a small percentage of people.

It's not just broadcast BBC that doesn't always accommodate. The BBC ouch disability mobile website is awful for a lack of accessibility...where they had an embedded audio file reporting on a story For the deaf the other day. With no transcription.

Why don't we just have blank screens, with AD for everyone, and subtitles for the deaf? To hell with the majority who are actually paying for the services.

Catering for minorities is one thing, but denuding services for the majority is really a step too far. I hope the BBC don't respond to this in any way.

If TV graphics have to take a 'step back' to accommodate every disability, then we really are heading the wrong way.

Does iPlayer become a "rock through the window" with a few runic scrapings?

Sorry Stuart, I disagree with you completely. I'm colour blind and I wouldn't class myself as disabled. Granted, I can't do certain jobs, but it doesn't prevent me from living a perfectly normal life. And true accessibility isn't "catering for minorities", it's actually ensuring the largest number of people are able to access content. You seem to think that incorporating accessibility would somehow negatively affect the majority of the audience. In many cases, if something is accessible for a disabled person, it is just as accessible for anyone else. And in terms of the BBC, haven't these minorities you mention actually paid for the services as well? So I think they have every right to access them fully.

How would blank screens be of any benefit to deaf or blind viewers? How are pictures of any detriment to their televisual experience?

And don't deaf or blind (or colour blind) people pay for their TV licences?

Taking a little more care over potentially confusing colours - when colour is specifically being used to convey important information - is not going to ruin the experience for everyone else. No-one's asking them to bend over backwards and dye Simon McCoy's hair green so he won't get mistaken for a piece of the furniture.

(only teasing, Simon, I love you really)

Doing this would make him more likely to blend in with the furniture when he's in the CSO studio.

They do indeed, but blind/visually impaired people get a 50% discount.

I apologise if you and itsrobert took my comment as offensive to people who have any restriction on ability: but my point was that there are many ways to cater for such things without it having any effect on viewing for the majority. (Red Button, Subtitles etc)

This story is out of date anyway. They are talking about election coverage that is almost 16 months old and this year a lot of these things were rectified - the SNP are now black on yellow rather than white on yellow and the number of oranges and greens used for parties was reduced and variations in colour were more significant.

In most places in the election coverage the colours appeared alongside abbreviations like 'CON', 'LAB', 'LD' etc. so that it was clear what was meant. The only places where colours were used on their own was the Vine segments and the Raworth map which were a minority of the coverage and were fairly pointless anyway. Astons and the Maitlis touchscreen always included both colour and abbreviation, while the white on yellow for the SNP was clearly an issue it was rectified for the 2016 coverage. For anyone wishing to test, I've placed the BBC Election colours (2016) in hue order...

... are there any any colour blind people are having trouble reading/distinguishing?

Anyway 'fiasco' does seem a bit Mail with regards to the BBC. I wonder if the guardian are still engaging in their little spat over charter renewal.

Incidentally, you rarely will see all of these colours together on a single graphic. Even on the most complicated, which is probably one in which you list every candidate standing for a constituency ahead of an election, you'd probably get, what, 10-12? I'd guess that most results GFX would be 5-6 candidates? My point is, the chances of getting a result where most candidates are represented by a blue or a green is pretty slim. You're far more likely to get (in England at least) Con (Blue), Lab (red), lib dem (yellow), ukip (purple) and green (green) and an independent/other or two (grey).

The constituency results graphics only have room for six and cut off at the sixth if there are more than that in a constituency. Also they have the party coding before the candidates surname as well as the coloured box so it goes [LAB (Red Box] [Candidate Surname (White Box)] [# of Votes (Red Box)]. As I said the only time colours appeared by themselves without the 2-4 letter codes was the Vine segments and the map outside NBH which actually added little to the coverage.

In answer to your question, yes, I'm having trouble distinguishing between 6, 8, and 10; 12 and 13; 20 and 22. If those colours were together I would have real difficulty distinguishing between them, especially if lighting isn't optimal.

6 is the Liberal Party, 8 is Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, 10 is Mebyon Kernow. 12 is SDLP and 13 is Respect. 20 is the Conservative Party and 22 is the NHA. Only latter pairing are likely ever to be seen together on a constituency level but both the SDLP and Respect are likely to appear together when it comes to a national level (in 2015). Probably bolsters the argument for always including the 2-4 letter codes.

One of the other issues with colour coding is the fact that there is no consistency between broadcasters which is confusing to everyone. The BBC have changed Plaid to yellow/gold but Sky kept it Green and Northern Irish and other parties are a free-for-all. It's also worth pointing out that the BBC's running total has the 2-4 letter codes whereas Sky News's is just reliant on colour coding.