‘Finally, someone gets it!’ The TV invention that could revolutionise viewing for disabled people

Mon, 31 Mar 2025

There’s been no innovation in accessible TV since the 90s. That’s why we created the personalised service Ultra Access, so everyone can tweak how they watch based on their own needs

When I was growing up, I was obsessed with watching TV. I would rush home after school and wake up early on weekends, just to soak up the magic of storytelling on screen. But as a child with partial deafness, I could only catch about 70% of the dialogue; the rest was guesswork. Like being in a foreign country, winging it with limited vocab, not having full access is tiring and everything is tinged with a sense of alienation.

One day in the early 80s my parents brought home a new TV set. Up flicked a page of blocky coloured digital text – Teletext. They pressed page 888 and subtitles suddenly appeared. It was a revolution, my own personal moon landing. The half stories were unlocked. I had full access.