"The deaf and hard of hearing community hasn't been considered at all"
We've been speaking to Lucie Notman in Tadcaster, who's been affected by subtitling issues on Channel 4.
A member of the deaf and hard of hearing community in Tadcaster says recent subtitling issues on Channel 4 have prevented her from watching her favourite programmes.
It's been nearly five weeks since fire safety systems were triggered at Red Bee Media’s west London headquarters, damaging the equipment which provides access services.
BBC and Channel 5 were able to get their back-up systems working shortly after, but Channel 4's failed. Since then more than 500 complaints have been logged by Ofcom.
Channel 4 have said subtitles, audio descriptions and signed broadcasts are expected to be unavailable until mid-November.
Lucie Notman lives in Tadcaster, and has had to stop watching Channel 4:
"I feel like the deaf and hard of hearing community hasn't been considered at all. I depend on subtitles to watch certain programmes, and I've stopped watching Channel 4 because of it.
"It's not nice for our community to feel like we aren't being listened to or considered at all. It's what we need and depend on, and I'm really upset because it's stopped me watching some of my favourite programmes like Gogglebox and the Bake Off.
"It's hard to avoid spoilers, and I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way. You go on Facebook and see what's happened on those programmes, which is such a shame as I love watching them.
"Everyone has their own different things that they need for help, and in our community it is subtitles amongst other things. It is annoying because I'll see what's happened elsewhere, but not on the programme itself because I'm not watching it".
Lucie says the pandemic has been tough for her as well, especially with difficulties over lip reading because of mask wearing:
"It's been really hard. I've found it very difficult, especially working through the first part of the pandemic in a retail store.
"I had quite an ordeal with someone because I asked them simply to remove the mask - which is allowed at a safe distance - and I got a bit of frustration from it. I was spoken to really nastily about it.
"That set me right back, because I thought 'I'm just trying to work' and I couldn't hear this woman. It's not fair, and if anything that's why I want to raise deaf awareness to show people that we're just like normal people; we just need a bit of assistance from time to time.
"I've kind of avoided going to shops as much because I can't hear what people are going to say to me, and I know how stressful it is for other people in the community. It has been a massive struggle".
Ofcom have recently provided an update on the subtitling issue, saying:
"After a long outage, subtitles have now been restored on many Channel 4 programmes. However, signing and audio description are still not available on the broadcaster’s channels.
"We remain deeply concerned about the scale of the technical failures experienced by Channel 4 and the length of time taken to fix them. These problems have caused deep upset and frustration among people who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or partially sighted.
"Channel 4 did not have strong backup measures in place, and it should not have taken several weeks to provide a clear, public plan and timeline for fixing the problem.
"We expect Channel 4 to meet – or exceed – the timings it has set for restoring all its subtitling and other access services.
"When this is done, Ofcom will review the equipment and facilities that Channel 4 had – and now has – in place, so that lessons can be learned.
"We will consider what action might be required to make sure broadcasters do not find themselves in this situation again, and that subtitles, signing and audio description remain reliable even when problems occur with the infrastructure used to provide them."
In a series of Tweets, Channel 4 said it was starting to introduce subtitles to popular programmes on its on-demand service, but that was "a very labour-intensive process".
It continued: "We know this isn’t good enough, but it’s a start.”
They said: "Channel 4 has been able to restore subtitles for viewers with the collaboration and support of our partners, Red Bee Media, Arqiva, Freeview, ITV and the BBC, for which we are very grateful.
"Additionally, Channel 4 is grateful for the ongoing advice and support of RNID in speaking to our deaf audience during this time."
The provider haven't yet confirmed an exact date for when the service will resume in mid-November.