Vol. 551 No. 2
395 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands if her attention has been drawn to the fact that many State-funded videos, such as those used by Dúchas in interpretative centres, are not accessible for deaf visitors; if she will consider rectifying this by the addition of subtitles and a sign language insert; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9983/02]
It has been my policy to make all of the visitor centres operated by Dúchas, the Heritage Service of my Department, as accessible as possible to all visitors. The general matter of video usage at visitor centres is under review by my Department. The technology for service delivery is also changing. Many of our sites use video technology that is rapidly becoming obsolete and DVD offers prospects for the conversion of some older presentations. Given the wide range of alternative technologies currently available my Department has recently set up an internal committee to examine the issue and to recommend the most appropriate method(s) of technology my Department should adopt.
One outcome may be that my Department will use fewer video shows in the future and that much of what we will use will be more closely integrated into the interpretative displays themselves. Issues such as subtitling or sign language inserts will be addressed in the context of the decision on the new technology.
