Inclusion

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Accessible trailers help you decide

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Many movies are available with captions and/or audio description at cinemas, on DVD and some video-on-demand (VOD) services. But how do you decide whether the movie is the right one for you? Websites that feature accessible movie trailers are a good starting point.

Popcorn spilling out of a glass bowl onto a tablecloth, paper bag in the background


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Captioning helps ASD students

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One of the identified audiences for Media Access Australia’s CAP THAT! campaign is students with diverse learning needs. This includes students who have an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which represents about 0.5% of Australians according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics SDAC Survey1.

Ai-Media live captioner


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Affordable Access secures grant funding

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Media Access Australia has secured an Australian Communications Consumers Action Network (ACCAN) grant for its Affordable Access project, which will look at low-cost, mainstream accessible technology for people with disabilities with an aim to help people make more informed choices when it comes to devices.

Elderly person using a Samsung tablet device. Image credit: Wikipedia commons

Digital media and technology: 

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Android Wear 5.1.1 includes long-awaited accessibility features

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The latest version of the Android Wear operating system version 5.1.1 includes several new accessibility features which allows wearable devices to become accessible for many users.

Accessibility icon highlighted in Android Wear 5.1.1 (under Location and above Screen Lock)

The new features are largely vision-related, with support for magnification, colour inversion and large text. The magnification feature can be accessed via specific gestures.

Digital media and technology: 

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Captions aid literacy in the classroom

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Worldwide studies have identified that captions can play a vital role in improving literacy levels of students. Improving reading skills is one of the main objectives for Media Access Australia’s CAP THAT! campaign, which targets all schools and all classrooms across Australia with the simple message: turn the captions on when playing television or video content in the classroom.

High school aged girl writing on paper in classroom with other students


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UK disability advocates release roadmap for VOD accessibility

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The accessibility of video-on-demand (VOD) services is a hot topic in Australia, the UK and other countries at the moment. There have been calls for legislation to be introduced unless the VOD services make acceptable progress in introducing captions and audio description voluntarily. But what constitutes accessible progress? In the UK, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), Action on Hearing Loss, and Sense (who represent people who are deafblind or have associated disabilities) have issued a report that attempts to answer that question.

Elderly couple watching TV together. Woman pointing remote at screen. Image credit: Defining progress for Access Services on Video on Demand (VOD)


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ACMA releases caption compliance reports for 2013-2014

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The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has released the annual captioning compliance reports for free-to-air and subscription television for the financial year 2013-2014. They show that the majority of services have met—or exceeded—their targets for the year.

The report for free-to-air compliance found that all 51 commercial stations and SBS met their captioning target for the year, which was to caption 95 per cent of programs on their primary channels between 6 am and midnight. The ABC fell one per cent below its target, due to the fact that only one hour of its music program


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UK regulator releases caption quality report

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The UK communications regulator Ofcom has released the third of four planned reports on the quality of live captioning on television.

Girl watching television

Ofcom commenced its caption quality measurement project in in 2013, and the first two reports were published in 2014. The reports are based on samples of news and entertainment programs broadcast by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky.


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NZ increases funding for captioning and audio description

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NZ On Air, the New Zealand Government’s broadcast funding agency, has announced that it will increase its funding for captioning and audio description by NZ$400,000 ($AUD 371,207).

NZ On Air: Irirangi Te Motu logo


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Web and PDF Accessibility: New Tools for Changing Times

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Tim Connell, Managing Director at adaptive technology company Quantum talks about web and document accessibility. Tim spoke to media Access Australia following his presentation at the 2015 Print Disabilities Conference held May 2-5 in Adelaide, South Australia.

Quantum: Reading, Learning, Vision logo


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