[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] LG Uplus is expanding support to enhance convenience for people with disabilities. This is to improve content accessibility and reduce service usage inconveniences for people with disabilities ahead of Disability Day on the 20th.
On the 5th, LG Uplus announced that it will provide Korean subtitle services for domestic movies and drama content so that hearing-impaired individuals can watch various content. Previously, subtitles and sign language were only applied to live broadcasts, but with this service, Korean subtitles have been added to movie and drama VODs as well.
For the VOD Korean subtitle service, LG Uplus directly participated in subtitle production. Currently, content with Korean subtitles includes popular movies and Korean dramas such as ▲Sinkhole ▲Hostage ▲Miracle ▲Kingmaker, totaling about 150 titles. LG Uplus plans to expand subtitle services so that Korean subtitles will be basically supported for newly provided popular movie and drama VODs on U+tv in the future.
The VOD Korean subtitle service will first be applied to customers using the UHD2 set-top box and will be gradually expanded to users of various set-top boxes.
Consultation services to alleviate inconveniences for hearing-impaired customers have also been expanded. Previously, consultations were provided via chat, but to expand choices for people with disabilities and provide more intuitive consultations, a service offering guidance in sign language has been added.
Hearing-impaired customers who wish to have sign language consultations can communicate with professional sign language counselors at the LG Uplus customer center through video phones or mobile video call apps. They can also have face-to-face sign language conversations with counselors via social networking service (SNS) messenger apps.
In addition, LG Uplus provides customized support such as direct connection to counselors for the convenience of visually impaired customers and consultations using easy terms to help individuals with developmental disabilities understand better.
Support for disabled customers who are concerned about their young children's education is also ongoing. LG Uplus provides voice information recommending storybooks so that visually impaired parents can easily use the ‘Book Reading TV’ service of U+ Kids’ Land for their children. Last year, LG Uplus received over 450 voice donations through the voice donation campaign ‘Naechakso (Introducing My Favorite Book).’ Visually impaired parents can listen to the voices of donors and select books to read to their children.
Going forward, LG Uplus plans to apply technology that allows changing the size and color of Korean subtitles provided in live broadcasts to strengthen media accessibility for people with disabilities. It also plans to develop technology that provides voice guidance for channel changes, menu screens, and program information for the visually impaired.
An LG Uplus official said, “LG Uplus is striving to enable people with disabilities to use various services without inconvenience,” and added, “We will continue to constantly consider digital technologies that can provide practical help to disabled customers.”
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