Research & Policy news

Error message

Deprecated function: Array and string offset access syntax with curly braces is deprecated in include_once() (line 14 of /home/mediacc/public_html/themes/engines/phptemplate/phptemplate.engine).

Electoral Commission falls at the last accessibility hurdle

no
Show on home page

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has made online enrolment available for the first time. However, by requiring a driver’s license, the AEC has missed the opportunity to make enrolling to vote and updating enrolment details substantially easier for Australians who are blind or vision impaired.

Voters who do not hold a driver’s license, such as those who are blind, must print, sign and return the form to the AEC. These additional steps will require a person who is blind to seek assistance from a sighted person.

This requirement comes as a disappointment as testing showed that the AEC had taken significant care to ensure that the website is accessible to people with disabilities. Using a screen reader, a blind person can complete each form and access all content, making the printed form the only access barrier.


Top of page

Real-time captions to be delivered in NSW public schools

no
Show on home page

Progress has been made towards equitable education in New South Wales public schools with captioning provider Ai-Media winning a competitive tender to provide live captions in classrooms across the state.

Live or real-time captions are provided at schools, universities, conferences and workplaces. The Ai-Live system uses a trained captioner working remotely, transcribing live speech into captions which appear discreetly on the student’s laptop. This gives Deaf and hearing impaired students direct access to teacher instruction via text.

If the school chooses, a transcript of the lesson can also be provided. This is important as unlike students with hearing, those who are Deaf or have hearing impairment cannot lipread, read captions and take notes at the same time.


Top of page

Awareness of audio description increases in the UK

no
Show on home page

New research released by Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, shows that over 60% of people are aware of the service, which gives blind and vision impaired people access to television programs.

Audio description was first broadcast on British television in 1994, and by 2009 most of the main channels were required to provide it on 10% of their programs. However, research commissioned by Ofcom in that year showed that awareness of it among the general public was low. Following a public awareness campaign initiated by Ofcom and carried out by broadcasters, awareness rose to 37%.


Top of page

ABC found in breach of captioning rules

no
Show on home page

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has found the ABC in breach of captioning rules due to poor captions on episodes of At the Movies (broadcast on 22 August 2012) and Gruen Planet (broadcast on 17 October 2012).

In its media release, the ACMA states that the ABC did not provide the service required “as the live captions that were broadcast were not adequately synchronised with pictures on the screen. There were also problems with inaccurate and missing captions.” Another issue identified in the investigation reports was that colouring of the captions, which is used to indicate different speakers, was inconsistent.


Top of page

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Research & Policy news