There are virtually no accessibility standards for interactive TV but we believe that our Looking Local service is as 'partially sighted friendly' as possible. 

Much of the standard accessibility documentation is web-centric, considering issues like framesets, JavaScript, and screen reader support which don't apply to TV.  So in the absence of good guidelines, we used common sense - trying to create a simple yet functional front end.  We kept to recommendations from the platform providers for load times, font size (we have the largest font size on any interactive DiTV service I have seen), safe area and so on.  "Tiresias ScreenFont" is used everywhere, as it was recommended by the RNIB (see http://www.tiresias.org/research/guidelines/guidelines_list.htm#application for more info).  White text on a dark background was used to increase text contrast aiding partially sighted users (much like a text-only website).  We have had an accessibility review carried out by AbilityNet and the results were very favourable.

Looking to the future, we have some options on some new platforms available to us.  When IPTV (broadband TV) is implemented (we are currently undertaking a pilot) we could look at the introduction of audio narrators and visual signers.  This however this is not currently not possible on Virgin or Sky. 

We believe that the current Looking Local service is one of most accessible TV sites available through any platform.