Catering to the hard of hearing with SVT's Clear Speech

Have you ever worried about turning up your TV set while others in your home are asleep, just so you can hear the dialogue? If so, you are not alone. For years, one of SVT’s most common accessibility complaints was background music and other sounds overpowering the conversations on screen. This has been one of the main complaints SVT receives from its audiences, according to Erik Hedin, lead media accessibility strategist at SVT. The issue is particularly acute for audiences who are hard of hearing. But this all changed with the advent of the digital world, and now thanks to an award-winning accessibility solution, Tydligare Tal (Clear Speech).

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, SVT was determined to reach all audiences, as more and more people turned to online products and services. A small team set out to answer the question many had been asking for years: why can’t we hear dialogues clearly when watching TV? So, taking advantage of an annual innovation sprint, a small group of accessibility experts got together with key people including senior post-producers and staff from SVT Play to solve the question.