A visually impaired Love Island fan has complained over ITV's failure to include audio description on the show - despite featuring a contestant with sight loss in the current series.
Guide dog owner Lynette Proctor is a huge fan of the reality show but says her enjoyment would be far greater if she didn’t miss so much of what was happening on screen - especially the scenes involving Ron Hall.
Ron, 25, was left gutted at the weekend when Lana Jenkins coupled up with new arrival Casey O’Gorman rather than picking him. Ahead of last night’s episode, host Maya Jama teased that Ron, who is blind in one eye, was “not a happy bunny”.
Lynette, a marketing officer for Guide Dogs says she was “delighted” to hear Ron had been cast but dismayed when the obvious next step was missed.
"Having never watched the show with audio description – who knows what parts I could be missing out on?” she explained. “Though improving the inclusivity in the cast is a great start – it disappoints me that viewers who are partially sighted or blind are still being excluded.
“This is due to the lack of audio description (AD) on the show. Audio description means people with sight loss can fully experience what is playing out on screen as it describes and brings to life all the visual elements of the content.
“For someone who is visually impaired, AD provides that extra layer of context to what is taking place on screen. Whether that is mannerisms, movements, facial expressions, or non-verbal communication, it helps build a full verbal picture for someone who is partially sighted.”
Love Island is trying to showcase more diversity when it comes to disability representation and has previously featured Hugo Hammond, the first islander with a physical disability, and last year Tasha Ghouri, the first deaf contestant. Ron lost the sight in his right eye after being kicked during a game of football, aged eight.
Lynette, 34, said of all the years to add audio description, this would be the one to do it. She added: “It is surprising that Love Island has failed to include AD on the programme for its visually impaired viewers (many of whom may be watching for the first time) whilst featuring the first partially sighted contestant.”
She reports that only 20% of content on new platform ITVX has AD - and it’s never on reality shows.
A spokesperson for Guide Dogs said ITV could do better. “Accessibility and inclusion are at the heart of everything we do. Disability representation on screen is so important in increasing awareness and understanding of sight loss. We were so pleased to see Ron Hall in this year’s line-up of Love Island, but what about the people who are blind and partially sighted who want to watch him on the show? We’d love to see more shows and advertisers not only feature people with sight loss, but to also consider their viewers with visual impairment and enable more audio description.”
Last night ITV said it was not yet possible to provide audio description on a daily production like Love Island. A spokeswoman said: “We don't receive a finished version of the programme until after transmission - and although we can provide subtitles live, we don't yet have that technical capability for audio description.”
She said that ITV did now provide AD for all new drama along with the soaps and pre-recorded shows including The Masked Singer and Real Housewives of Cheshire.
She added: “We have an ambition to be the UK's most accessible streaming service, and we are committed to putting greater accessibility at the heart of ITVX."
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