The Media Access Review began under the Howard Government, and encompassed issues surrounding captioning, audio description, cinema and DVD accessibility, and emergency notification. The ‘Media access review final report’ proposed many positive recommendations, including:
- legislating for 100% captioning from 6am to midnight on free-to-air television by 2014
- a three-month trial of closed audio description on ABC1 for 14 hours per day
- legislating for minimum caption quality standards
- improving captioning complaints powers for the ACMA
- improving accessibility features on television commercials
- conducting a further review of access to electronic media in 2014
Minister Conroy said in his press release, “The Government will ensure that meaningful improvements to media access for people with hearing and vision impairment can be achieved, while also ensuring actions taken are practical for broadcasters and content producers.
“I announce today, on the International Day of People with Disability, that the Government will move to immediately implement the Report’s recommendations, and call on industry and disability group stakeholders to similarly take action to implement recommendations that affect them.”
Media Access Australia strongly supports and welcomes the Minister’s call for immediate action to improve access to electronic media.
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