Lorraine Williamson
RTVE is preparing to launch a news bulletin in simplified language and a dedicated television channel for people who are deafblind, in a move aimed at making public information more accessible to viewers who are often left out of mainstream broadcasting.
RTVE president José Pablo López announced the plans during his latest appearance before the joint Congress-Senate committee that oversees Spain’s public broadcaster. He said the measures are intended to reach groups that “often have absolutely no focus in the media”.
News in easier language
One of the main changes will be a Telediario in lenguaje fácil, or easy-to-understand language, designed for people with cognitive disabilities and others who struggle to follow standard news formats.
The new bulletin is being developed with the Centro Español de Accesibilidad Cognitiva. RTVE says it will use simpler language, clearer explanations and more visual support so that complex news stories can be understood in a more direct and accessible way.
The Centro Español de Accesibilidad Cognitiva describes itself as a public service that researches and promotes cognitive accessibility in information and public spaces. Its work is based on the idea that accessibility is not only about ramps, subtitles or sign language, but also about whether people can understand the information being given to them.
For many viewers, this could make national news less overwhelming. Politics, public health, emergencies, legal changes and international stories are often explained using fast language and complex terms. A simplified bulletin could help people follow events that affect their daily lives without needing someone else to interpret them.
A channel for people who are deafblind
RTVE is also working with ONCE on a full channel for people who are deafblind. López said the public broadcaster would be the first television service he was aware of to offer an entire channel dedicated to this group. The launch is expected around November, linked to Spain’s new technical plan for digital terrestrial television.
The channel is expected to be called RTVE para todos and is intended to give people who are deafblind fuller access to public television content. RTVE is also finalising a strategic agreement with the Confederación Estatal de Personas Sordas so that users themselves can help assess whether the accessibility measures being developed are genuinely useful.
Thousands affected in Spain
Figures on deafblindness in Spain vary depending on how the condition is measured. López referred to around 30,000 people in Spain, while a study cited by APASCIDE estimated 34,137 people with deafblindness. The same study noted that official disability records identify far fewer people when deafblindness is recorded only as the primary disability, showing how difficult the group can be to count and support properly.
ONCE has previously said there is no definitive census and that deafblindness includes a very diverse group of people. Some have no useful sight or hearing, while others retain some vision or hearing; the condition may be present from birth or acquired later in life.
The practical barriers are easy to underestimate. A person who cannot rely fully on either sight or hearing may need adapted formats, tactile communication, specialist support or technology that allows them to follow information in a way television has not traditionally provided.
More than subtitles
RTVE says accessibility has already become a central part of its public service role. According to López, the broadcaster has gone beyond the legal requirement of 90% subtitling and now reaches 99%, amounting to more than 42,000 hours of subtitled programming in 2025.
He also said accessible programming is no longer pushed only into late-night schedules. Instead, RTVE is placing subtitles, sign language and other adapted services in important viewing slots, including prime-time programming, news bulletins, parliamentary debates and major international developments.
That matters because access to news is not a luxury. During heat alerts, elections, public health warnings, transport disruption or emergencies, the ability to understand what is happening can affect a person’s independence and safety.
A broader test for public broadcasting
The announcement also comes at a sensitive moment for RTVE, after the broadcaster apologised for subtitling the Andalusian accent of footballer Fabián Ruiz’s mother in a documentary. López described that decision as a serious error and said the Andalusian way of speaking should never be treated as a language barrier.
The new accessibility measures are a different issue, but they raise the same wider question of how public media speaks to the whole country. Spain is not one audience with one way of listening, reading or understanding. A public broadcaster has to reach people who are older, disabled, deaf, blind, deafblind, neurodivergent, learning Spanish, or simply overwhelmed by fast and complicated information.
If RTVE delivers the projects as promised, the new simplified-language Telediario and the channel for people who are deafblind could become one of the broadcaster’s most meaningful public service changes in years. Not because they are flashy, but because they recognise something basic: people have the right to know what is happening around them.