David Blunkett: Television executives ‘worship the cult of youth’ and fail the deaf and blind
David Blunkett, the MP and former Labour home secretary, has accused TV executives of ‘worshipping the cult of the young’ and failing deaf and blind people through incorrect subtitles and by being reluctant to dub foreign programmes.
Speaking to the Radio Times, Blunkett, who was born blind, said: "Broadcasters talk a good deal about equality, but preaching is not enough. In an ageing population, people with hearing and sight impairments are becoming part of the mainstream.
"It's no longer about a minority: we're a major sector of the viewing public, and we have the same rights as everyone else who pays the licence fee.
"Today, the way TV executives worship the cult of youth seems to be an unstoppable fetish. It is the trendy, the metropolitan and … the under-40s who determine what we view and what we listen to.
"But much of the spending power reflects an older age group. The ageing population wields a very powerful incentive: our financial muscle."
This comes after Ofcom pledged in May that it would introduce new measures to tackle subtitle blunders, including plans for six monthly quality checks.
Blunkett added that there was frustration for blind people when foreign documentaries and dramas were not dubbed.