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Audio description in regional NSW
Transcript
18 September 2013
Roberta: Many listeners will know Mary Lovett, who received an Order of Australia Medal for her lifetime of service to blind and vision impaired people. Today she is here to talk about a movie screening she’s organised to help raise awareness of audio description in her local community of Mudgee, New South Wales. First of all, Mary, congratulations.
Mary: Thank you.
Roberta: Now, Mary, what made you decide to organise an event like this?
Mary: Well, look, for ages I’ve belonged to Blind Citizens Australia and we are the western area. Look, we’ve been trying and nobody really seems to want to take any notice about how blind people cope with looking at TV and I think if we had someone in the new government, if we had a blind person, we might get some help. Why we’re doing it here, we want to educate the people, so that they know what the value is, and then from that perhaps people power might help because we will have a questionnaire in this wonderful showing of Australia and we really just want the people to know what a great thing to have audio description on TV.
Roberta: Exactly, now, how much work goes into holding an event like this?
Mary: Well, it’s huge, really, but it just sounds huge. I guess you need to know you’ve got insurance, you’ve got a good venue that’s accessible. You have to have funding, so you need to get people onside to fund all that for you. If you don’t get funding you need to have a raffle. You need to know that the people that are coming are coming to look and judge just how good this is and the fact that people who are blind will be sitting there along with sighted people and they’re all doing the same thing, won’t be asking questions, “What are they doing now?” It’s just wonderful.
Roberta: That’s the whole aim, isn’t it, for people who are sighted and people who are maybe blind, to be able to enjoy the event together.
Mary: Absolutely.
Roberta: Mary, how did you get permission to show the film?
Mary: Well, we were speaking to Eliza Cussen, who is just wonderful, and she actually encouraged me. I was telling her what I wanted to do but I didn’t know how. So she said to me, “Mary, why don’t you ring Australian Entertainment Association?” Look, I do have the proper wording but not in my brain. Look, I spoke to another lady there who was very good, just like Eliza, and she performed a miracle. It took a few days but she got back to me and she said, “Yes, you could run the DVD, Australia. Without anything, you now have the permission from …” She had to go right to the top to get the permission.
Roberta: Of course, yes.
Mary: All the bits and pieces, so we have the permission to run Australia here.
Roberta: That’s a great film to do, actually.
Mary: Well, we’re going to have an interval in between because someone said it’s long.
Roberta: It is long but I loved it. Now, getting audio described media can be a challenge in regional Australia. Do you see progress happening?
Mary: No, it’s not. I’ve actually spent this morning, I’ve been ringing around because that was a question. There’s nothing in Orange, so that’s the biggest town outside Mudgee. I did ring Dubbo. They can have it for hearing impaired but not for blind.
Roberta: That has to happen, hasn’t it?
Mary: Yes, it has to happen. We have been ignored for so long just to have the same privilege. Look it’s a privilege to see, even though we won’t see, the audio description is so good you can almost see.
Roberta: Now, what advice do you have for people wanting to organise a screening in their local community, which would be wonderful?
Mary: I would encourage anybody who would like to do it to use the contact that I used, Home Entertainment Distributors Association.
Roberta: That’s the one, yes.
Mary: That was the one and, look, everybody knows about what we’re doing because we’ve done everything. We’ve put posters out everywhere. We’ve talked to all the nursing homes. We’ve talked with the hospitals. We’ve talked to anybody that might use something like this and know the value of it to actually come. There’s no charge. We have had people donate the whole thing to us. We’ve had people pay for the theatre and people will give to us. They will run the video for nothing. It’s been a great experience to do, very encouraging.
Roberta: Thank you for that, Mary. Listeners, you can find a list of cinemas that offer audio description on the Media Access Australia website which is www.mediaaccess.org.au. The organisation to contact is the Home Entertainment Association, so do it if you can. Thank you very much, Mary.
Mary: Thank you so much.
Roberta: I’ve been speaking with Mary Lovett, who received an Order of Australia Medal for her lifetime of services to blind and vision impaired people. This segment was proudly brought to you by Media Access Australia. Media Access Australia is a supporter of this program.