Summary: On 17 July 2010, an agreement was announced whereby, by 2014, the major cinema chains (Hoyts, Village, Event and Reading International) would provide captioning and audio description at every one of the 132 cinema complexes they operate in Australia, across 242 screens. This is a fantastic improvement on the 12 screens around the country that currently provide captioning for three sessions per week. (See media releases: http://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/media/media_releases/2010/76_10.html) But what is audio description and captioning? And how does it aid and enhance the cinema experience for the large number of people who are deaf, have hearing impairment, are blind, or have low vision? To find out more, Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Graeme Innes spoke to Mr Alex Varley, CEO of Media Access Australia, about this important announcement, the technology involved and the way it works.
