LARGE numbers of viewers in the Border ITV area were excluded from last night's debate.
Why did the Yes Campaign and Better Together agree to broadcast via a television station which can not be accessed by all Scottish citizens?
I understand that it was only available on Freeview and therefore those of us who use Freesat and Sky were left to try to access it online. As the STV Player was not working for the first hour this meant that we were not able to see the full debate. Will future debates also be designed to disadvantage large numbers of potential voters? How can we persuade Border ITV to serve its customers correctly?
Linda McDonald,
Stenhouse Cottage, Tynron, Thornhill,
Dumfries and Galloway.
IT wasn't just people watching on STV Player who had difficulty following the independence debate between Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling last night ("Viewers frustrated over STV streaming failures", The Herald, August 6). The programme also wasn't accessible for 13,000 people in Scotland who use British Sign Language (BSL) and require communication support from interpreters.
We're also concerned about time lags between the subtitles and the speakers on the STV Player recording of the debate, as the lack of synchronicity can be confusing for the 850,000 people in Scotland who are deaf or hard of hearing.
We hope that the upcoming referendum debates on TV are fully accessible for people with hearing loss.
Delia Henry,
Director of Action on Hearing Loss Scotland,
Empire House,
131 West Nile Street,
Glasgow.
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