Accessible live streaming
Captions and BSL, built in from the start.
Not bolted on the week before. Not forgotten until someone complains.
Live captions, in-vision BSL interpretation and captioned recordings, produced as part of your stream rather than as an afterthought. For AGMs, public meetings, conferences and any event where the audience is everyone.
Most accessibility gets added late, and it shows.
An interpreter squeezed into a corner of the frame at 200 pixels wide. Auto-captions that turn your chief executive's name into something unrepeatable. A recording that sits on your website for eight months with no captions at all.
None of that happens because anyone stopped caring. It happens because accessibility was handed to the production company three days out, when the shot was already designed and the platform was already chosen.
We do it the other way round. If we know at quote stage that you need BSL or live captions, we design the frame, the layout and the delivery around it. It costs less and it works properly.
What this covers
Three things, done properly.
The bit that catches people out
The fourteen day rule.
Live content is treated differently from recorded content. A stream going out in real time is not held to the same captioning standard as a video sitting on a web page. But the moment that recording stays published beyond fourteen days it stops being live content and starts being pre-recorded content, which means it needs accurate captions.
Almost every AGM recording we see is still on the client's website a year later. If it went up without captions, it has been non-compliant for eleven and a half months.
That is why we treat the captioned recording as part of the job rather than an optional extra. You get the live version accessible on the day and the archive version accessible for as long as you keep it.
We produce it. We do not pretend to interpret it.
To be straight with you: dwmedia is a live video production company, not an interpreting agency. We do not employ BSL interpreters or speech-to-text reporters in house. What we do is handle the production side properly, which is the part that usually goes wrong, and coordinate the right specialists through suppliers we have worked with before. There are only around 1,800 registered BSL interpreters in the UK, so the single biggest factor in whether your event has an interpreter is how early you ask.
Duty and decency
Where the obligation actually comes from.
dwmedia produces accessible live streams for housing associations, NHS trusts, universities, councils and membership organisations across the UK. That means live captions displayed alongside the broadcast, British Sign Language interpretation composited properly into the frame at a size people can actually read, and a captioned recording delivered afterwards so the content stays accessible for as long as it stays online.
For most organisations the driver is a mix of duty and decency. Under the Equality Act 2010 there is an obligation to make reasonable adjustments so disabled people are not put at a substantial disadvantage, and case law around live events has established that sign language access is a requirement rather than a courtesy. The British Sign Language Act 2022 goes further for government departments, placing reporting duties on the use of BSL in public communications. If you are a public body, your website and its content also sit under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations.
Questions we get asked.
How early do we need to ask for BSL?
As early as you can. There are only around 1,800 registered BSL interpreters in the UK, so availability, not budget, is usually what decides whether your event has one. Raise it at quote stage and we will tell you honestly what is achievable for your date.
Are auto-captions good enough?
Not for anything that matters. Auto-captions mangle names, acronyms and technical terms, which is precisely the content people rely on captions for. We use a human speech-to-text reporter and brief them in advance with names and terminology.
Does the recording need captions too?
Yes, and this is what catches most organisations out. Live content is not held to the same captioning standard as recorded content, but once a recording stays published beyond fourteen days it counts as pre-recorded content and needs accurate captions. Almost every AGM recording we see is still on the client's website a year later.
Do you employ interpreters?
No. dwmedia is a live video production company, not an interpreting agency. We handle the production side, which is the part that usually goes wrong, and coordinate registered interpreters and speech-to-text reporters through suppliers we have worked with before.
What does it cost?
Captions and BSL are quoted per job because they depend on the length of the event, the number of specialists needed and how much notice there is. They are not priced by our estimator for that reason. What we can tell you is that designing them in from the start costs less than retrofitting them.
Is this a legal requirement?
For most of our clients it is a mix of duty and decency. The Equality Act 2010 requires reasonable adjustments so disabled people are not put at a substantial disadvantage. The British Sign Language Act 2022 places reporting duties on government departments. Public bodies also sit under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations for their websites and the content on them. We are not lawyers, so take advice on your own obligations, but this is the ground most organisations are standing on.
Raise it at quote stage.
Tell us on the call that you need captions or BSL and we design around it. Tell us the week before and we will do our best, but the frame is already built and the interpreters are already booked elsewhere.
This website's own accessibility statement is here.