The principal organiser is world-renowned arts accessibility expert Betty Siegel from the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington DC. The conference features accessibility experts from museums, galleries, performing arts and venues. This is the primary arts access conference in the world.
The conference program with a registration form can be downloaded from the Kennedy Center website.
Access to cinema relates to how people with disabilities, particularly those who are blind and deaf, view films at the cinema through solutions such as captioning and audio description. The forum is part of new Israeli international film festival, Shekel - Reframing Reality, ‘challenging the concept of disability’, which focuses on disability-centred films from 2010-2011.
The HAS provides a set-top box, installation and an antenna, if needed, to eligible households. These households are usually vulnerable people that are elderly, isolated or have a disability.
“The HAS is a model for how government programs should be run,“ said Media Access Australia CEO Alex Varley. “It has been designed in consultation with the people it will help and is sensitive and responsive to their needs.”
The rollout of these access solutions will take place in conjunction with the group’s digital cinema rollout, and will be available for widespread use in America over the next 12 to 18 months.
Chief Administrative Officer & Counsel Randy Smith said, “almost every Regal location nationwide will be fully equipped with digital cinema systems and be further equipped to provide closed captions and descriptive video for our deaf, hard of hearing and blind guests”.
