Deaf News: iPlayer whizzkids working on subtitle bug but will deaf people still miss out?

After a flood of complaints from angry deaf users of iPlayer, the BBC say they have sussed out what was causing the intermittent and jumpy subtitles that rendered many programmes completely unwatchable.

Correspondents with the Chicken have reported that the BBC emailed them letting them know that a bug had been found with the site which caused the problem and a fix was due to be uploaded in the week. BBC staff also sent quick-fire to responses on twitter pointing to a webpage which said the same.

@tony_sutton @Limping_Chicken Hi Tony, we're aware of the issue and are working to correct it. More info here: http://t.co/N7KKAYnws2

— BBC iPlayer (@BBCiPlayer) October 15, 2013

At the time of writing, there had been no improvement and some of the programmes that were affected, like a Very British Murder, are no longer available on iPlayer as they were broadcast more than 7-days ago. Does that then mean that the deaf viewers of those programmes will miss out even though the problem is fixed? Lets hope not.

By Andy Palmer, Deputy Editor (@LC_AndyP)

The Limping Chicken’s supporters provide: sign language interpreting and communications support (Deaf Umbrella), captioning and speech-to-text services (121 Captions), online BSL learning and teaching materials (Signworld), theatre captioning (STAGETEXT), Remote Captioning (Bee Communications), visual theatre with BSL (Krazy Kat) , healthcare support for Deaf people (SignHealth), theatre from a Deaf perspective (Deafinitely Theatre ), specialist lipspeaking support (Lipspeaker UK), Deaf television programmes online (SDHH), language and learning (Sign Solutions), BSL interpreting and communication services (Lexicon Signstream), sign language and Red Dot online video interpreting (Action Deafness Communications) education for Deaf children (Hamilton Lodge School in Brighton), and legal advice for Deaf people (RAD Deaf Law Centre).