Blind/vision impaired TV, DVD, Cinema & the Arts news

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Lack of audio description a breach of human rights

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Blind Citizens Australia (BCA) yesterday lodged 21 disability discrimination complaints against the Federal Government and the ABC for failing to provide an audio description service on television.

Audio description is the descriptive narration of a TV program or other media, making them accessible for the blind and vision impaired. It was successfully trailed on ABC1 between August and November last year, with 14 hours of programs broadcast with audio description each week for 13 weeks. After its completion, the then Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, said, “It’s clear that audio description is a service that is strongly desired by the vision impaired community and the trial was embraced with real enthusiasm by participants.”


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Australia signs treaty to boost access to books

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People who are blind or vision impaired will have increased access to books and other print media after an international copyright treaty was signed. The treaty, signed by members of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Morocco last week, will allow signatories to make exceptions to copyright laws within their country so that accessible alternative copies such as Braille, large print or audio books can be created.

To access print media, blind and vision impaired people require such as large print or audio alternatives to be made. Copyright laws often restrict the production of accessible copies of published works (printed or otherwise) and sharing these across organisations overseas.


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TV access expands in the UK

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The UK communications regulator Ofcom has released the list of channels which will be required to provide access services – captioning, audio description and signing – in 2014.

Each year, Ofcom reviews the audience share and revenue of television stations in the UK, and determines an appropriate level of access as set out in the ‘Ofcom Code on Television Access Services’. Most stations which have been broadcasting for ten years, and are required to provide the highest level of access, must broadcast 80% of their programs with captions (called subtitles in the UK), 10% with audio description and 5% with signing. However, some stations have voluntarily increased their levels.


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CineEurope - a roving report on cinema access developments

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Europe's largest cinema convention, CineEurope, is currently taking place in Barcelona, Spain, and our cinema manager, Ally Woodford, visited the trade show to find out the latest on movie accessibility.

Woodford met with equipment and ticket booking software manufacturers. She was able to test Sony's Entertainment Access Glasses in a cinema setting and see USL's caption viewing options of glasses and personal seat-mount screen. USL is the only company currently offering both technologies.


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