All the participants and subcontractors within the ViSiCAST project are also themselves potential end-users of the technology being developed. In the application areas the relevant end-users (particularly Post Office, ITC, IRT, RNID, IVD, INT) have been closely associated with the individual application under consideration. In the technology areas, participants who will later be involved in technology-transfer issues, dealing with associated areas, are also involved (for example, TV, INT, UH).

Independent Television Commission (Regulatory authority within the UK and, through its licensees, a potential end user of broadcast signing systems) The ITC has a responsibility under the Broadcasting Act 1996 to regulate the provision of signing services on commercial digital terrestrial television in the UK. The UK's commercial broadcasters are the first in the world to have this requirement placed upon them. European legislation now requires that access to all services must be made available to disabled people, and it is therefore to be expected that other European countries will adopt signing services in the not-too-distant future. In the UK, services are due to begin in 2000. The ITC has a statutory obligation under the 1996 Act to prepare and maintain a code which describes quality and operational criteria for the transmission of signing on digital television.

Work and experience from ViSiCAST will be extremely helpful in carrying out this obligation. It also liases with all the organisations in the UK representing the interests of deaf and hard-of-hearing television viewers and will consult with them on developments in signing technologies to ensure that their concerns are carefully considered. The ITC also represents the interests of the UK's commercial broadcasters on international standards bodies such as ETSI and ITU-R, and is heavily involved in the work of the EBU and DVB. The ITC will promote potential standards for the representation and transmission of virtual human signing systems in these European bodies. Where appropriate it will also work with the consumer electronics industry to ensure that ViSiCAST technology can be implemented into set-top boxes.