FAQ - Disability

With regard to replay programs, since December 2020,article 20-6 of the 1986 law has required that programs offered on TV channels' catch-up TV service be made accessible to people with hearing or visual impairments, if they have been made accessible on the linear TV service. In other words, if a program shown live has been subtitled, the "hearing-impaired subtitles" feature for that program should be available on replay. The same applies to audio description.

The law of February 11, 2005 on equal rights and opportunities, participation and citizenship for the disabled introduced a number of provisions on this subject into the law of September 30, 1986.

The legal scheme makes provision for all public TV channels, as well as private channels whose annual audience exceeds 2.5% of the total TV audience, to subtitle all their programs, subject to certain exceptions. Private TV channels with an audience of less than 2.5% of the total audience for television services are also subject to subtitling obligations defined in agreements with Arcom.

In addition to subtitling obligations, Arcom has taken the initiative of introducing French sign language performer obligations into the agreements of certain publishers. These obligations mainly concern all-news channels and channels offering programs for youngsters.

Subtitling norms vary according to the wishes of TV channels. Subtitle colors, placement and scrolling speed differ from channel to channel, and sometimes even from company to company.

However, Arcom has initiated some standardization in the presentation of subtitles by drawing up a charter to improve the quality of subtitling. to improve subtitling quality in 2011. Among the criteria to be met by publishers, subtitles must be limited to two or three lines, depending on whether the program is live or deferred broadcasting, they must be perfectly legible and they must allow an appropriate reading time.

Although this is a flexible legal text, which is not restrictive for signatories, most DTT channels have listed this charter in their respective agreements, giving it a conventional value.

Article 20-6 of the law of September 30, 1986 entrusts Arcom with the task of improving the quality of ccessibility measures. Well before the introduction of this article at the end of 2020, the quality of accessibility was already a concern for Arcom, which resulted in the development of a charter on subtitling quality in 2011. This text lists the various criteria that channels must respect in terms of subtitling. These include requirements in terms of image quality and legibility, as well as notices aimed at reducing the time lag between speech and subtitling.

Outside the DTT platform, distributors (such as Free, Orange, Bouygues or SFR) are obliged to use the subtitling streams made available by the channels. However, distributors are free to choose the format they apply to subtitles, which is why some channel packages offer teletext-like subtitles and enlargement mechanisms, with varying degrees of functionality. Nevertheless, as of June 28, 2025, distributors are obliged to ensure that subtitles for the deaf or hard-of-hearing are fully transmitted with a quality appropriate for a clear display and synchronized with sound and video, while allowing the user to adjust their display.

Audiodescription is a description technique for blind or partially-sighted people. It consists in describing the visual elements of a cinematographic or audiovisual work to the blind or partially-sighted public, to give them the essential elements for understanding the work (scenery, characters, actions, gestures). The recorded text is placed between the dialogue and sound effects and mixed with the original sound.

The law of September 30, 1986 makes provision for the specifications of public audiovisuel companies and the agreements of private channels whose national audience exceeds 2.5% of the total audience for television services to define the proportions of programs accessible to blind or partially-sighted people, particularly during peak listening hours.

In addition to its quantitative obligations in terms of audiodescription, Arcom also monitors its quality. In 2008, Arcom first signed the Audiodescription Charter in 2020, which provides TV channels with a managerial framework for the production of audio-described versions.

Ensuring the ethical conduct of audiovisuel programs is one of the Authority's missions. This concept has several facets: respect for the human person, the fight against discrimination, the maintenance of public order, the honesty and independence of information, the handling of legal cases and, finally, respect for the right to privacy.

The fundamental principles of professional ethics in the audiovisual media are set out in article 1 of the law of September 30, 1986. The Authority also relies on other texts such as article 9 of the French Civil Code, which protects the privacy of individuals, and the July 29, 1881 law on freedom of the press, which sentences insult and defamation.

These legal obligations are enshrined in the agreements signed by private broadcasters and in the terms of reference of public broadcasters. Several of their clauses require channels to avoid complacency in evoking human suffering, to respect the different political, cultural and religious sensitivities of the public, to promote the values of integration and solidarity, to verify their information and give its source, to demonstrate rigor in the presentation and processing of information, and to guarantee human rights.

The Authority has also adopted a number of notices and decisions in these areas.

The Authority always intervenes after the show has been broadcast. The channel is responsible for what it shows, and must be held to account for what it says on air. In the event of a breach, the Authority takes into account the conditions under which the program is shown: the host must intervene quickly, interrupting the speaker or sentencing him if unethical comments are made live. When the program is deferred broadcasting, such remarks must not be shown.

Finally, the Authority takes into account the genre of the broadcast. The seriousness of the breach differs according to whether the program is humorous, informative, a drama or a talk show.

You can contact Arcom using the contact form, selecting "Program accessibility" as the subject of your request. To enable Arcom to deal with your request efficiently, it is essential to specify the content of the request, mentioning in particular :

• the service providing access to audiovisual media services concerned (see " Which players are concerned? " and " Which services are concerned? " ) ;
• where relevant, the conditions of access to the service (e.g. the Internet browser and/or operating scheme used);
• the breach identified (see " What obligations must the players concerned respect? ");

the audiovisual media service browsed, when the problem concerns access to only one service in the supply (e.g. a lack of subtitling on a particular channel distributed by an ISP).

Content published by Arcom-regulated organizations on social networks is not subject to accessibility requirements, as article 47 of the February 11, 2005 law does not make provision for this. Arcom is only competent to check that content posted by organizations on their own public communication services complies with accessibility requirements. Nevertheless, Arcom encourages all players within the scope of its authority to ensure the accessibility of the content they publish, even outside their own services.