At WAVES 2025, panellists call for smarter, human-centred accessibility in media
Crisp insights from Rahul Bajaj, Christopher Patnoe, Rachel Lowenstein, Danish Mahajan, Dipti Prasad, Brij Kothari, and Me; and plenty of resources.
Hello! If you live in India, I hope you haven’t been bogged down by the latest developments. While mock war drills can be scary, they also exclude persons with disabilities. Like the most recent one conducted in India. Given that people with disabilities worldwide are up to four times more likely to die or be injured during conflicts and disasters, the government hasn’t planned for their evacuation in emergencies. Disability activist Nipun Malhotra has recently filed a case with the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities demanding inclusive wartime safety and evacuation plans. I’ll keep sharing updates on the progress and keep my fingers crossed for a quick resolution. As Virali Modi says, “We don’t need sympathy. We need systems.”
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In April, I conducted a workshop on the coverage of disability for the journalists of Deutsche Welle where we discussed, among other things, the importance of reporting for disabled audiences during times of crisis.
If you would like customised training/workshops for your organisation, I conduct those for newsrooms, communications teams, NGOs, and all kinds of organisations. I’m an accredited trainer of Solutions Journalism and Gender Equality Diversity and Inclusion and specialise in disability inclusion and accessibility in content. Write to me at pritisalian@gmail.com.
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“We can’t be inclusive if we’re not accessible”
Earlier in May, I was invited by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to participate in a panel discussing accessibility in media and entertainment at the inaugural World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES 2025). As the Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) approaches on 15th May, there couldn’t have been a better time for this conversation. And I’m so glad this happened in India!
Split into two parts, the panel brought together leading voices from the industry to confront a timely question: in an era of content abundance and rapidly evolving AI, how do we make digital experiences not merely compliant, but truly inclusive? It was an honour to share the stage with Rahul Bajaj, Christopher Patnoe, Rachel Lowenstein, Danish Mahajan, Dipti Prasad, and Brij Kothari. I’ve summed up the conversation below:
[ID: Four panellists and the moderator stand together on stage at WAVES 2025. From left to right: Delshad, the moderator for the event, an Indian woman with curly hair wearing a pale yellow blazer over a black outfit holds papers; Danish, an Indian man wearing dark sunglasses, and a textured black suit; Rahul, an Indian man in a magenta shirt holding a white cane, smiling; Priti (me) a woman with short, dark hair wearing a vibrant purple sari with a white trim. To the extreme right is Rachel, an American woman with brown hair in a floral, sleeveless dress and green platform heels. The backdrop displays the names, roles, and headshots of all panellists along with the "WAVES" summit branding.]
India as a leader
The discussion opened on a hopeful note by Brij Kothari, an academic and founder of PlanetRead who conceptualised Same Language Subtitling (SLS) on TV for mass literacy in India. “India is a leader in accessibility, and we need to recognise that,” Brij said. He emphasised that India is not only advancing accessibility but is also a pioneer in leveraging subtitles for literacy and education for weak readers. For almost three decades, Brij’s own work has focussed on making subtitling viable on video entertainment across languages in India.
Captions and subtitles play a significant role in making media and entertainment accessible to a wider audience. For deaf audiences who can read, it is one of the ways to make content accessible and for the hearing, a way to improve their reading skills and access to information.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted during the inauguration of WAVES 2025, accessibility can expand market reach. People worldwide like to, and are able to, consume content in Indian languages – especially Indian cinema – all thanks to subtitles.
In the recent past, there have been a few interesting shifts in laws and policy in accessibility in the entertainment industry in my country. We’ve had Accessibility Standards on TV since 2019. Last year, there was a ruling that all Indian films need to have one accessibility feature each for people with visual and hearing disabilities by March 2026 for certification by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). For films released in more than one language, the mandate began on 15th September 2024. Our co-panellist Rahul Bajaj, a blind lawyer, played a role in making this happen. This ruling has since been followed by recommendations for content accessibility for OTT platforms.
Embedding accessibility in design
Ashay Sahasrabuddhe, who leads the inclusive communication agency, Kintel, pointed to a promising shift in Europe, where some filmmakers are embedding accessibility from the script stage. They envisage the length of audio descriptions for silent portions of their films and leave enough space for embedding them. Given that retrospective implementation of accessibility increases costs, “this process saves cost and solves the ROI (return of investment) problem because accessibility is not an afterthought, it’s part of the creative vision,” Ashay said.
Christopher Patnoe, head of EMEA accessibility and disability innovation at Google, noted that the gaming industry is adopting this approach. “They're designing accessibility at the beginning and then treating it as a design challenge, rather than a tick box,” he said, exemplifying how proactive design can reduce costs and enhance storytelling.
Drawing from her personal experience as an autistic individual, Rachel Lowenstein, co-founder of the Neu Project added, "Creativity and media are not made for autistic people or neurodivergent people.” She noted that inclusive practices should not just be about compliance but also about empowering creativity and enabling people to do their best work.
To showcase lived experiences and challenge stereotypes, Rachel has created a library on Getty Images called Autistic Out Loud – a series of self-portraits of autistic people in different countries.
[ID: Four panellists stand together on stage with the moderator. From left to right: Delshad, an Indian woman with curly hair wearing a pale yellow blazer over a black outfit, holding papers and smiling; Christopher, a tall white man with short grey hair wearing glasses, a dark blazer over a black shirt, and jeans; Brij, a tall Indian man with a receding hairline and grey beard wearing a dark suit and a white shirt; Dipti, a woman with long dark hair wearing a grey pantsuit and heels, smiling; and Ashay, a man with a receding hairline wearing glasses, a blue vest layering a green linen shirt, and jeans. All five wear purple conference lanyards. The backdrop displays headshots and titles of other speakers.]
The benefits and challenges of AI
All panellists acknowledged the promise of emerging AI tools but highlighted the limits of automation. Ashay noted, “Technology is useful to achieve 70% to 80% of accessibility, but to get to perfection, technology will need to evolve much more.” He said that for accessibility to be effective, it must convey the intended narrative and context, not just basic information.
Christopher echoed this, stating that while AI can assist in content accessibility, storytelling still requires human insight. “You can't expect the machine today to do everything to make sure we're telling the story well,” he said.
Dipti Prasad, the founder of Nobaflix –India’s first OTT for visually impaired individuals – pointed to the practical benefits of AI. “Today we are delivering audio descriptions for a two-hour film in 30 hours as compared to the 15 to 20 days it took us earlier,” she said, illustrating how AI has expedited workflows.
Brij shared the value of embedding text as a core layer in audio-visual entertainment. “You can take that text and translate it with AI into as many languages as you want. But today, if you ask any producer for a final, verbatim script for their film, they won’t be able to provide it. A small behaviour change here can make a big difference.”
Despite optimism about AI, panellists acknowledged ongoing challenges. Indian-language translations generated by AI still lack contextual nuance, and even when accessible versions of films are created, distribution remains inconsistent. This was evident in the case of the movie Srikanth, which was released with audio description in theatres but not on Netflix, as the streaming giant deemed the audio description quality substandard.
Accessibility is a human right
Danish Mahajan, the founder of Radio Udaan– a community radio led by persons with visual disabilities –said that accessibility should not be seen as a charitable effort. “It is our human right,” he said. He called for a shift in perception, positioning accessibility as integral to design rather than an afterthought. Rahul added that we need to get rid of the numbers mindset. “Even if one person needs it, content should be made accessible,” he said.
Priti Salian (that’s me), who has been practising rights-based journalism for over 17 years, highlighted the media’s systemic lack of representation of disabled journalists, which leads to inadequate and inappropriate representation and accessibility, both in the news and in newsrooms. Sharing her research on the topic as a journalist fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford, she revealed that even after extensive searching, she found no more than a handful of disabled journalists in India’s newsrooms.
“Barriers begin right from the time the job search starts,” she said.
Newsrooms rarely advertise positions in ways that invite applicants with disabilities, and their application and interview processes are often inaccessible. “Journalists don’t know which newsrooms to approach or which ones are inclusive and welcoming,” she added. “There is a lack of role models for disabled journalists in India.”
Danish noted that while Mukesh Ambani in his speech mentioned inclusion as a pillar of WAVES, “We can’t be inclusive if we’re not accessible.”
In the entire Summit, our session was the only one accessible to Indian sign language users. Among other things, there were no live captions for deaf audiences who do not use sign language.
The path forward – collaboration and binding frameworks
All panellists unanimously felt the need for a single set of unified guidelines across content, noting that once accessible content is created, it should be available across all platforms, whether TV or OTT. "We need binding frameworks, with consequences for non-compliance," Rahul said, underpinning the importance of changing the nature of advisories to enforceable law.
The panel agreed that accessibility benefits all and is a business opportunity, extending its relevance beyond disability. Just as we all use captions to watch a video in a noisy place or listen to podcasts as an alternative to reading, rural audiences use subtitles for learning a language. “We’re not the ones to decide how diverse the use of accessibility is to different audiences,” Brij said.
The panel concluded with a consensus on the need for collaboration between creators, technologists, regulators, and audiences to drive meaningful change in media accessibility. All content should be born accessible, not retrofitted after production. As Prime Minister Modi noted during the inauguration of WAVES 2025: Investing in technology and platforms is essential, but so is investing in people.
Thank you, Brij Kothari, for your valuable feedback on this piece!
Resources
Subtitling your life
In Mumbai, I met my friend Parita Dholakia, who is Deaf and uses Live Transcribe and Otter to follow spoken conversations. Even though she was carrying three devices, I could see how poor connectivity paused our conversation so many times. In an earlier issue of Reframing Disability, Padmaja Bandi reported on the consequences of accessibility behind a paywall. Today, I’d like to recommend this article on the history of captioning and a game-changing breakthrough: eyeglasses that display real-time speech transcription on their lenses.
The state of accessibility across mobile apps
The Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD is around the corner and a timely report from them in collaboration with ArcTouch, and Fable, tested 50 apps across five key industries including Food & Delivery, Payments, Fitness, Shopping, and Streaming. On studying assistive tech (screen reader compatibility, alternative navigation such as voice control/voice access, font scaling, and device orientation), 72% of users found a poor or failing app experience due to accessibility barriers. Which one performed the worst? The shopping industry! Find more insights about opportunities for growth in the report.
Disability rights movement in Nepal
Krishna Gahatraj of the Disability Rights Fund documented the historical development of disability rights movement in Nepal. Such brilliant and important work! We don’t have documentation of the disability rights movement in India, something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. I wish someone would fund me to do it!
Guide for funders
A disability and climate justice guide for funders, also by the Disability Rights Fund offers practical recommendations to support inclusive, intersectional climate action.
Accessible airports worldwide
Singapore and Zurich airports top Conde Nast Traveller India’s list of the 10 most accessible airports in the world. Edinburgh and Dubai also made it to the list. None from India, unfortunately.
Disability and relationships
Connections: Unpacking the complexities of disability and relationships in therapeutic conversations by Rising Flame is a gem for understanding what navigating relationships means to persons with disabilities. If you are a woman with a disability, this quote by Srishti Pandey for her “friends” will sound familiar: “My brain would sideline all the favours I had done for them and only focus on the favours I received. So I started offering them extra help. I would offer to complete their homework, I would give them my notes. I would ask them every week if there was something I could help them with.”
Media Guide
We have another useful guide by Equal Access Public Media for journalists, including the language for disability and accessibility. Check it out!
Thanks for reading this issue and also sharing your thoughts on the previous one with Abhishek Anicca’s essay. I look forward to hearing from you again. Just hit reply or engage with me on LinkedIn and Instagram. Reframing Disability has its own account on Instagram now.
Until soon.
Warmly,
Priti