 Hello, my name is Dushan Tsav, I've worked in the area of information and communication technology accessibility for several years. As a founder of the Digital Society Forum based in Ljubljana, Slovenia and director of the Digital Institute, I've collaborated with stakeholders from advocacy, academia and industry, focusing on creating a more inclusive digital society. This video is a brief background to the paper that I'm going to present at Accessible Europe on the future of accessible audio-visual media services. Since 2008, the right of persons with disabilities to enjoy access to television programs and films on an equal basis with others has been guaranteed at an international level under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, known as the CRPD. The barrier-free access to television was for the first time recognized as a human right in an internationally binding treaty. In Europe, there have been tremendous efforts to make audio-visual media services accessible. However, accessible services have been implemented at a much slower pace than anticipated and their provision is increasingly challenging. There are technological challenges and complexities arising from the multi-platform environment and variety of standards applied across Europe. At the same time, legal and regulatory frameworks are also fragmented and not very effective. The television markets in Europe are diverse. Satellite television, although in decline, is still prevailing, followed by digital terrestrial, cable and internet protocol-based television. The traditional broadcast networks remain a major platform for delivering television, while IP-based networks are on the rise. There are also successful deployments of integrated hybrid networks that combine both traditional and IP-based delivery platforms. And all these platforms require different end-user devices. This technology diversity, even within individual countries, poses great challenges for the provision of accessible services. There are several stages in the end-to-end process of audio-visual media service delivery, with different requirements for accessible services that increase both the complexity as well as cost of their delivery. Language diversity and different language transfer practices for audio-visual works that exist side-by-side in Europe, such as subtitling, dubbing or voice-over, also add an extra layer of complexity to the provision of accessible audio-visual media services. Technological development brings new hope, however, when speaking of the development of language-specific resources and technologies, such as speech recognition, text-to-speech or automatic signing, small language groups are additionally disadvantaged. The legal and regulatory frameworks remain fragmented and the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities international laws is also slow. The challenges can be tackled by promoting cross-platform and IP-based solutions. There is also a strong need for collaboration throughout the end-to-end process of audio-visual media service delivery and among all stakeholders. Persons with disabilities need to be consulted and involved in key activities in order to ensure that accessible services meet their needs. Organizations such as the International Telecommunications Union and the European Broadcasting Union should have a greater role in these collaborative efforts and partner with governments and academia. They should engage in awareness-raising and capacity-building campaigns among stakeholders and encourage universities to design and share their curricula on accessibility. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the challenges we are facing in the provision of accessible audio-visual media services. However, existing international policies, standards and good practices from other countries can be tailored to fit the respective national circumstances. This background paper is available on the Accessible Europe website and I am very much looking forward to discussing the future of accessible television with you at the Regional Forum ICT for All this December in Malta.