The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) establishes obligations regarding the accessibility of audiovisual media services (such as sign language interpretation, subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and audio description) and the prevention of discrimination on the grounds of disability. As any Directive, Member States have to adopt national legislation to meet these general requirements.

To enforce these rules, each EU country has designated one or more independent national regulatory authorities (NRA) tasked with the implementation of the Directive. Besides, Member States must designate a single, easily accessible and publicly available online point of contact to provide information and receive complaints regarding accessibility issues.

• Get familiar with the specific audiovisual accessibility rules that apply in your country. To do so, one of the sources that you can use are the specific accessibility obligations that Member States have notified for the transposition of the AVMSD.
• Consult existing resources such as EDF Transposition Toolkit and the European Media Observatory AVMSD transposition table. The Media Observatory Transposition table will help you see how certain provisions of the directive have been transposed into national law.
• Identify the National Regulatory Authority in your country and get familiar with the complaint and enforcement processes. The procedures and the powers of the Regulator might differ from one state to the other.

• Portugal: In 2023, the Portuguese Audiovisual Regulator ERC condemned the  TV channel SIC with a 45.000 EUR fine for the absence of sign language interpretation in the pre-campaign debate for the European Elections. The Decisions was taken after a complaint filed by the Portuguese political party PAN (more information on the decision of the Portuguese audiovisual regulator).
• France: In 2023, the French Audiovisual Regulator ARCOM, warned the TV channel France 5 and France 2 about the bad quality of the subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing in two of their emissions. The action came after a complain and led to a request of actions to reverse the situation (more information on the decision of the French audiovisual regulator).