Every country in Cullen International’s eight-nation survey of the Americas region requires some form of accessibility measures on TV. However, the national requirements and their applicability vary.

The benchmark shows that sign language for some TV programming is the norm in Latin America, except in Colombia (but Colombia required sign language for some news broadcasts during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic). Neither the US nor Canada have sign language requirements for TV.

Subtitled content is required on over-the-air (OTA) TV in all eight countries, while the US has imposed subtitling requirements on both OTA TV and all forms of pay TV.

Argentina and Brazil have imposed audio description requirements on OTA TV. The US requires audio description on both OTA TV and all forms of pay TV. In contrast, Chile, Mexico and Peru have no audio description obligations for TV at all.

Neither Brazil, nor Mexico, nor Peru require any accessibility measures whatsoever over pay TV.

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