History: Signs of life
However, there was virtually no accessible television for adults until 1964, when the BBC launched News Review on BBC2. This was a review of the week's national and international news with basic caption subtitling and a small amount of signing. Like Vision On, News Review was meant to appeal to all sections of the TV audience, and every effort was made to ensure that access for Deaf people was as unobtrusive as possible.
By the 1970s there was a growing demand from Deaf people for programmes presented with signing, which reflected their particular interests and concerns. In 1979, the National Union of the Deaf, a Deaf campaign group, persuaded the BBC Community Programmes Unit to allow a group of Deaf people to make an edition of the access programme Open Door, which was called Signs of Life.
Signs of Life was a groundbreaking programme. For the first time, Deaf people could actually be seen presenting on television. Made for and by Deaf people, it fuelled the desire of the Deaf audience for programmes that reflected their lives and experience; programmes which gave their language priority, and were not primarily concerned with appealing to a hearing audience. The impact of the programme, coupled with the BBC's desire to mark the International Year of Disabled People, led directly to the decision to commission a magazine programme for Deaf people.
