THE MEDIA ACCESS REPORT

ISSUE 18
AUTUMN 2011

The Media Access Report’s new look

We recently undertook research with readers, including government, industry and consumer groups, out of which emerged a brand refresh for Media Access Australia. The new branding reflects our expertise and unique position in the area of media access as an adviser and information provider to a wide range of groups. As part of our rebrand, we have a new website, meeting international accessibility standards, a new logo and a new look reflected in this edition of The Media Access Report.

Media Access Australia - Inclusion through technology

‘We believe that all Australians have the right to access all forms of media and information, through technology, so they can participate fully in society.’

Media Access Australia is Australia’s only independent not-for-profit organisation devoted to increasing access to media for people with disabilities. 

At the core of our work is the understanding that exclusion from mainstream audiovisual media has profound effects on educational outcomes, workforce participation and social inclusion.

Access to media through technology empowers people to be independent, gain knowledge, make their own choices, and be active members of our society.

Our expertise

We promote inclusion by providing expert knowledge and advice on existing and emerging mainstream technologies to government, industry, educators, consumer organisations and individuals. 

We demonstrate how media accessibility can be improved in practical ways, by piloting innovative ideas and major projects.  

We work as a catalyst for change in areas of access that include television, DVD, cinema, the arts, education, computing and the Internet, with a primary focus on people who are blind or vision impaired, or Deaf or hearing impaired. 

We seek to improve national and international Internet accessibility standards as a member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international online community where the general public and organisations work together to develop web standards.

We are a national organisation, based in Sydney, with a satellite office in Perth.

Our heritage

Media Access Australia was formed out of the Australian Caption Centre, a not-for-profit organisation co-founded by Adam Salzer and Alexandra Hynes in 1982. 

The Centre aimed to promote and produce captioning for Deaf or hearing impaired Australians. At the Centre’s inception, captions were non-existent, however, over its life the organisation grew to provide captioning services on TV, video and DVD.

In 2005, the Centre sold its commercial operations including captioning services to Red Bee Media, and became Media Access Australia. We no longer provide services to business, allowing us to focus on promoting inclusion without the conflicts of commercial operations. 

As Media Access Australia, our focus broadened to include people who are blind or vision impaired and others who are disadvantaged in access to media. We recognised that, while some needs are different between disabilities, there are important similarities in terms of solutions, technologies, industries and regulation. By focusing on these similarities we can achieve better results for all.

Disclaimer

Statistical information published in The Media Access Report is derived from public sources such as television listings and websites. It has been made available for general use only and is provided without warranty as to its accuracy or currency.  

Submissions

We are interested in receiving submissions for publication in The Media Access Report, including accounts of media or events that have been made accessible, research papers, and news items dealing with captioning, audio description and other access services. If you have any material you would like to submit, contact Chris Mikul on (02) 9212 6242, or email chris.mikul@mediaaccess.org.au

The Media Access Report is published by Media Access Australia, Suite 408, 22-36 Mountain Street, Ultimo NSW 2007. Phone/TTY: (02) 9212 6242, Fax: (02) 9212 6289. www.mediaaccess.org.au

If you would like to be put on the mailing list to receive future issues of The Media Access Report, email info@mediaaccess.org.au
Contents

THE MEDIA ACCESS REPORT
The Media Access Report’s new look
Media Access Australia - Inclusion through technology
CONTENTS
MEDIA ACCESS NEWS
Canadian access coalition calls for 100% accessibility by 2020
Ofcom publishes Single Equality Scheme Annual Report
US communications regulator proposes new access rules
UK study looks at 3D audio description guidelines
Disney sued over lack of accessibility
Government announces the Terms of Reference for the Convergence Review
TELEVISION
Commentary: A new regime for television captioning
Media Watch puts the spotlight on poor captioning
US access provider releases caption quality survey results
American groups call for universal television captioning
US Super Bowl fully captioned for first time
US cable TV provider agrees to address captioning problems
NZ audio description trial begins
US communications regulator proposes new rules for audio description
DVD
Access on new release DVDs
EDUCATION
The Government reviews disability standards in education
Read Captions Across America
US video highlights learning benefits of captions
CINEMA & THE ARTS
New captioned cinema location in Melbourne
Music for the hearing impaired
US cinema chain expands captioning following litigation
Audio description and captioning in Australian cinemas
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
Commentary: iOS versus Android: two models for achieving access
Latest Skype app supports video calls on WiFi and 3G
New Android app provides accessible onscreen keyboard
Amazon provides Kindle screen reader access on the PC
Free and low-cost screen reader use on the rise
ONLINE MEDIA
ITV Player in the UK now has captions
Boxee Box now supports playback of ABC iView captions
UK broadcasters create accessible YouView
Canadian government to appeal accessible website ruling
BSI web accessibility code of practice formally launched
Competition on accessible web development open to all
Drupal 7 released with added accessibility support
UK project Fix the Web hits 500 mark for website access reports
RESEARCH AND POLICY
Survey shows high levels of awareness and use of captioning
Glossary
Acronyms

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MEDIA ACCESS NEWS

Canadian access coalition calls for 100% accessibility by 2020

The Access 2020 Coalition has sought the support of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for its new Access Initiative to assist broadcasters to become accessible to all Canadians who are Deaf, hearing impaired, blind or vision impaired. The initiative would see 1% of all TV ownership transactions from 2010 to 2015 allocated to a not-for-profit fund that would finance the transition to complete accessibility on all distribution platforms.

“The tools to make TV accessible were invented more than thirty years ago,” said Beverley Milligan, the CEO of Media Access Canada, which is spearheading the Coalition. “Yet only 3% of the programs aired by TV stations are described for blind, partially sighted or low-vision people, captioning errors in captioning make many programs impossible to watch, and the TV content that is so widely available online or through mobile telephones is not accessible at all.” 

The proposed fund would be allocated to accessibility research including the development of standards and monitoring progress towards full accessibility in terms of captioning and audio description. 

For more information, see the Media Access Canada website: http://www.mediac.ca/crtc_subs.asp

Ofcom publishes Single Equality Scheme Annual Report

Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, has published its Single Equality Scheme Annual Report that details the progress of its equality commitments, including action on disability issues.

The Single Equality Scheme is Ofcom’s action plan towards achieving its seven goals for diversity and equality. Some goals are internal, such as aiming to increase the number of people from diverse groups working at Ofcom, including in executive and advisory capacities. Others relate to policy and project development, with Ofcom now conducting an Equality Impact Assessment to evaluate the impacts of such activities on producing equality for various groups.

Of particular note in the scheme is Ofcom’s continued commitment to access to television. Ofcom aims to improve monitoring of broadcasters’ compliance with the Television Access Code and to encourage manufacturers of electronic program guides to make them accessible to people with a hearing or vision impairment.

The scheme also requires Ofcom to make its own content accessible. This includes improving the accessibility of the Ofcom website, providing publications in alternative formats and languages, and including representatives from diversity groups whenever Ofcom gives briefings or runs an internal or external event.

For more information, see the Ofcom website: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/about/equality-and-diversity/annual-report-single-equality-scheme-action-plan-200910/?utm_source=updates&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ses

US communications regulator proposes new access rules

The Federal Communications Commission held an open meeting on 3 March to consider Notices of Proposed Rulemaking on two proposals of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. These were:

•	The proposal to require providers of advanced communications services and manufacturers of equipment used for those services to make products accessible for people with disabilities.

•	The proposal to reinstate the FCC’s rules for video description (called audio description in Australia).

The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, a comprehensive set of proposals to make electronic and online media accessible, was signed into law by President Obama on 8 October 2010.

UK study looks at 3D audio description guidelines

With 3D cinema and television becoming increasingly popular around the world, the question has naturally arisen of whether 3D visual effects need to be incorporated into audio description. The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in the UK has just released a study which indicates that audio description users do not believe that they should be.

The RNIB organised two focus groups consisting of 10 blind and partially sighted people who regularly watch audio described programs on TV or DVD. Clips from 3D movies were shown to the groups and the history and process of 3D explained. The participants were unanimous in saying that that they did not believe that they would benefit from 3D effects being described, and that doing so might mean that other important information was left out. “3D is visual and if you’ve not got vision or not a lot of vision then it’s not necessary,” was a typical comment.

The focus groups were also given a list of 11 elements of audio description, and asked to rank them in order of importance. Describing what characters are doing, and on-screen information such as supers identifying time and place, were considered to be the most essential elements. These were followed (in descending order) by descriptions of facial expressions, location of the characters, other actions taking place on screen, who is present in the scene, how old they are, what they are wearing and what they look like. Program credits and identifying the genre of the program were found to be the least important elements.

A full report of the study can be downloaded from the RNIB website: http://www.rnib.org.uk/aboutus/Research/reports/2011/3d_TV_Audio.pdf

Disney sued over lack of accessibility

Three women in the United States are suing Disney for discrimination against those who are blind or vision impaired. According to the press release about the class action suit, the plaintiffs are claiming that the parks themselves are discriminatory against people who are blind and vision impaired by “refusing to reasonably accommodate the needs of guests with guide dogs, refusing to provide functional audio technology, refusing to provide Braille menus, schedules and maps, and more”. 

In addition to this, the plaintiffs claim that the websites associated with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts also have numerous accessibility issues for people who are visually impaired. 
The three plaintiffs are not after any monetary compensation, simply that Disney comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act regulations, so that people who are blind and vision impaired have the same access to Disney products as others. 

Until now all three women have been enthusiastic patrons of the Disney Parks and Resorts and their associated websites. 

More information about the lawsuit including the Class Action Complaint and other documents can be found on the Forizs & Dogali website: http://www.forizs-dogali.com/home/index.php

Government announces the Terms of Reference for the Convergence Review

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) released the Terms of Reference for the Convergence Review on 2 March. The Convergence Review will examine Australia’s regulatory approach to convergent media, with the Terms of Reference setting the scope of the review. 

Convergence refers to the “development of digital broadcasting, data compression and internet-based technologies, coupled with improved infrastructure capability, [which] means that content and services that were previously constrained to one delivery channel can now be delivered over many different platforms”. Examples of convergent media include online TV catch-up services and smartphones that have phone and Internet capabilities.

Following a two-month consultation over a set of Draft Terms of Reference, the DBCDE largely made only slight changes to the draft terms. However, a new term of reference was added, which will require the review to examine convergence in terms of international experience and Australia’s international obligations.

Importantly for access to convergent media, the review will examine appropriate policy settings to “maximise transparency, choice and access for consumers to the broadest range of content across platforms, and services used to deliver content”.

The Terms of Reference can be downloaded from DBDCE’s website: http://www.dbcde.gov.au/digital_economy/convergence_review/convergence_review_terms_of_reference

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TELEVISION

Commentary: A new regime for television captioning

Captioning on Australian television is about to undergo its biggest regulatory shake-up in years following the release of the Australian Government’s ‘final report’ from its ‘Investigation into access to electronic media for the hearing and vision impaired’.

Captioning levels on the primary or ‘core’ channels of the networks are currently determined by an agreement negotiated between the networks, Deaf Australia and Deafness Forum by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). Thanks to this agreement, captioning of programs between 6 am and midnight has been has been rising by 5% increments each year since 2005, and will reach 85% by the end of this year. These quotas build on the captioning provisions in the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) which states that all news and current affairs programs, and all programs broadcast between 6 am and midnight, must be captioned. The AHRC agreement, which exempts the networks from complaints made against them under the Disability Discrimination Act, expires this year. 

What the Government is proposing is essentially to remove the AHRC from the process of determining acceptable captioning levels. The ‘final report’ states:  

Free-to-air broadcasters and disability representatives have expressed concern over the competing obligations of the BSA and the DDA in regard to accessing electronic media. Broadcasters and representatives of people with hearing or vision impairment received with interest the proposal that the Australian Government consider updating the BSA captioning targets for free-to-air broadcasters and to prescribe the relevant parts of BSA under the DDA

This action would require the Attorney-General to prescribe the relevant sections of the BSA under Subsection 47(2) of the DDA and list the relevant sections of the BSA as a prescribed law under Schedule 1 of the Disability Discrimination Regulations 1996. While the BSA has requirements for the captioning of free-to-air broadcasts, the primary law relevant to the provision of captioning and audio description in the area of electronic media is discrimination law. Therefore, prescribing the relevant parts of BSA under the DDA will provide both consumers and broadcasters with a level of regulatory certainty. It will provide certainty about future targets, one overarching regulatory system and a clear and cost-effective compliance and complaints mechanism.

The caption quotas that the Government is proposing be included in the BSA continue the trajectory of the AHRC-brokered quotas. Captioning from 6 am to midnight on the primary channels will increase to 90% by the end of 2012, 95% by the end of 2013, and 100% by the end of 14%. In addition to this, caption targets for subscription television will for the first time be included in the BSA, with the proviso that appropriate targets can be agreed upon during the first quarter of 2011.  

Media Access Australia welcomes these decisions – we believe that the BSA was the appropriate mechanism for increasing caption levels all along. We do note, though, that basing caption quotas on the period ‘6 am and midnight’ is not done anywhere else in the world. In both the US and UK, most major channels (on both free-to-air and subscription networks) have now reached or are very close to 100% captioning across 24 hours, so Australia still has a lot of catching up to do.  

The other important recommendation regarding captioning in the ‘final report’ is that the BSA will be amended to include a statement that captions have to be “of adequate quality”. Poor quality captions, especially live captions, have been maddening caption viewers for years, but the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has been limited in the actions it can take in response to complaints because the BSA was silent about caption quality. The ACMA has also been charged with holding caption workshops with stakeholders (including TV networks, disability representatives and caption suppliers), and to develop a set of guidelines it can use when evaluating complaints. This process is already well under way and yielding results.

MAA understands that the amendments to the BSA are scheduled for the end of the Winter session of Parliament. When they come into force, caption users who rely on this vital service should see improvements in both the amount and quality of captions on television. 

Media Watch puts the spotlight on poor captioning

On 7 March, the ABC’s Media Watch carried a lengthy segment looking at the state of captioning on news and current affairs programs on Australian television, and found that all too often the quality is so poor that captions are incomprehensible.

The program noted that many of the problems stem from an increased use of ‘voice captioning’ (where a captioner re-speaks dialogue as a program goes to air and speech recognition software converts it to captions). Previously, live programs, and live segments of news bulletins, could only be captioned by highly-paid, highly-trained stenocaptioners (who create captions using a phonetic keyboard). Voice recognition offers a cheaper alternative to this. Captioning created using this method can be as accurate as good quality stenocaptioning, but the result can be inferior when voice captioners are given insufficient training and preparation time.

The program included clips of very poor live captioning on ABC, Nine and Ten (as well as, for contrast, a clip from Seven news with good quality captions). Problems highlighted included incorrect words and captions lagging way behind dialogue, then speeding up so that they were ahead of the dialogue. 

Live captions, whether created by a stenocaptioner or voice captioner, are transmitted as ‘scrolling captions’, which appear on screen one word at a time, and inevitably lag behind the dialogue by around 3-5 seconds (although the lag can be greater). Most caption viewers dislike scrolling captions, but for genuinely live program content, they are inevitable. The important thing is to keep them to an absolute minimum.

Julie Flynn of Free TV Australia told Media Watch, “We believe the voluntary guidelines should be given a chance to work.” A spokesperson from the Deafness Forum of Australia responded, “The current guidelines have been voluntary, and the standards have been slipping.”

Captions for Seven, Nine, Ten and SBS are produced by Red Bee Media Australia, which now uses voice recognition extensively. (The ABC’s captions are produced by CSI.) Media Watch noted that Seven is the only network which continues to insist that, as far as possible, captioners prepare captions from scripts and vision, and that these are transmitted as ‘block captions’ (rather than as ‘scrolling captions’ that appear one word at a time). One Red Bee captioner was quoted as saying, “Increased workload, lack of preparation time, and old software are the biggest problems.”

The program’s findings have implications for the work that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is currently doing developing standards by which it can to judge the adequacy of captions (see previous article). MAA receives numerous complaints from TV viewers about caption quality, with many of these being specifically about poor live captions.

US access provider releases caption quality survey results

The WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) is developing a prototype automated assessment system for live captioning (including the captioning of news programs). The first stage of this process was to determine the relative severity of different sorts of errors. NCAM has now released the results of a survey of caption viewers who were presented with examples of errors and asked to rate them according to how they affected comprehension.

Over 300 caption viewers took part in the online survey, the majority of whom were Deaf or hearing impaired. Each was asked to evaluate 41 samples of caption errors, comprising 17 different error types. Garbled captions resulting from transmission problems received the highest ranking (84% of respondents rated these as severe), followed by incorrect and garbled words, incorrect words with similar sounds, and dropped words. Prior to taking the survey, only 6% of viewers said they thought captions on news programs were ‘generally accurate’.

The survey results can be downloaded from NCAM’s website: http://ncam.wgbh.org/file_download/131 

MAA will be monitoring the progress of this project, but notes that this is just one way that caption quality can potentially be monitored. Most of the complaints we receive about live captions concern programs that have captions which are so inaccurate that they are essentially useless. We believe the way forward is to firstly ensure that live captioners have the required training and software to consistently produce live captions of the highest possible quality. Secondly, as live captions will always be inferior to pre-prepared captions in terms of accuracy and synchronisation with dialogue, they should be kept to an absolute minimum.  

American groups call for universal television captioning

US Deaf and hearing impaired and disability advocacy groups have filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for television to be fully captioned.

The American Association of the Deaf-Blind, the American Association of People with Disabilities, the Association of Late-Deafened Adults and the Hearing Loss Association of America were among the groups asking the FCC to remove several rules allowing exemptions for TV captioning, including exemptions for:

•	Late night programming
•	Commercial and political advertising
•	Locally produced non-news programming
•	Interstitials (short television programming), promos and public service announcements
•	Channels with annual revenues under US$3 million

The groups also called for captioning using the ‘electronic newsroom technique’ (where the only captioning displayed is from a teleprompter and does not produce accurate captions) not to be counted towards compulsory captioning quotas, and for an exemption order made in 2006 to be removed. 

For more information, visit the Coalition of Organisations for Accessible Technology website: http://www.coataccess.org/node/9955

US Super Bowl fully captioned for first time

This year’s Super Bowl, broadcast on 6 February on the FOX network, was fully captioned for the first time, including captioning of all national commercials and promotions.

While the Super Bowl, the National Football League’s championship game, has been captioned for years, this was the first time that captioning on commercials reached 100%. According to a survey conducted by access advocate Sean Zdenek, 75% of commercials during last year’s Super Bowl were captioned. The Super Bowl is usually the most watched television event of the year in America, with a 30-second advertising spot during it costing US$2.7 in 2010. 

The National Association of the Deaf applauded the NFL and FOX, noting that, “This year's achievement marks an important milestone in the quest to achieve 100% television and Internet accessibility.”

US cable TV provider agrees to address captioning problems

In 2010 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched an investigation into the cable TV provider Comcast, following complaints that the company’s set-top boxes were not passing through closed captions. This investigation has now been terminated, with Comcast agreeing to take steps to rectify the problems, and to make a voluntary contribution of US$500,000 to the United States Treasury.

Under the FCC’s closed caption regulations, all video programming distributors must ensure that any closed captioning present on programs they distribute must be retained so that it can be received in households. Under the terms of the agreement, Comcast will review its procedures for testing set-top boxes and revise them where necessary to ensure that they pass through captions correctly. It will also notify the FCC within 30 days if problems with any particular model of set-top box are identified.

Comcast must send reports to the FCC in January 2012 and January 2013 to show that it is complying with the agreement.     

NZ audio description trial begins

The trial of audio description on New Zealand television began on 1 March with an episode of the long-running British soap Coronation Street. The Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand selected the program, which airs on TV One, as the one that its members wanted to be audio described first.

It is planned that the audio description of Coronation Street will continue until the end of the year. The success of the service will then be evaluated, and it is expected that more programs will follow. The service can be received on Freeview HD and Freeview Satellite TV receivers, and has been funded by a grant of NZ$500,000 from New Zealand on Air. 

The introduction of the audio description service has been made possible by developments in digital television. “We've been providing captioning for those with hearing impairments for a long time,” said Helen Clifton, TVNZ’s Head of Production Services and Technology, “and we can now make television an experience to be really enjoyed for those with visual difficulties."

The Australian Government’s Media Access Review has proposed a trial of audio description on ABC1 in the second half of 2011, subject to funding approval. The Australian trial will consist of considerably more hours per week than the New Zealand trial. And while the New Zealand trial features ‘broadcast-mixed’ audio description (which means that two versions of the program’s soundtrack are broadcast, one with the description track already mixed in), the Australian trial will follow the receiver-mixed standard used in the UK (meaning that the mixing of the description track is undertaken in the viewer’s television or set-top box). 

US communications regulator proposes new rules for audio description

On 3 March, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a ‘Notice of Proposed Rulemaking’ which outlines how it intends to reinstate audio description quotas on American television.

Reinstatement of the quotas for audio description (called ‘video description’ in the US) is a provision of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, which was signed into law by President Obama in October. The quotas were originally introduced by the FCC in 2000, but its authority to do this was successfully challenged in the United States Court of Appeal five months later. The FCC now intends to reinstate the rules, with some modifications, on 8 October 2011. This will mean that the top four national networks (ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC) and subscription television suppliers with more than 50,000 subscribers will have to provide 50 hours of audio described prime time and/or children’s programs per quarter. The FCC proposes that this requirement will commence on 1 January 2012.

In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC has raised a number of issues for comment, including a definition of ‘near-live’ programs (which, like live programs, are exempt from audio description requirements). It proposes that a near-live program be defined as one which is “performed and recorded less than 24 hours prior to the time it is first aired”. Other questions which the FCC has asked include:

•	Is 1 January 2012 a reasonable date for the requirement to commence? 
•	What are the costs of audio description?
•	Should the FCC mandate quality standards and if so, what should they be?
•	What programs should be audio described?
•	How should audio described programs be publicised?

A PDF of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking can be downloaded from the FCC website: http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db0303/FCC-11-36A1.pdf

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DVD

Access on new release DVDs

Access to new release DVD titles on rental outlet shelves during the month of January 2011 stood at 78% for captioning and 39% for audio description. 

The DVD titles released since November 2010 with audio description include:
•	4.3.2.1.
•	Arthur & the Revenge of Maltazard
•	Boy
•	Cemetery Junction
•	A Christmas Tale (2010)
•	Death at a Funeral (2010)
•	Despicable Me
•	The Expendables
•	Get Him to the Greek
•	Jonah Hex
•	The Karate Kid (2010)
•	The Kids Are All Right
•	Killers
•	Knight & Day
•	The Last Airbender
•	Marmaduke
•	The Other Guys
•	Our Family Wedding
•	Piranha
•	Salt
•	Scott Pilgrim versus the World
•	Shrek Forever After
•	Solomon Kane
•	The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
•	Space Chimps 2
•	The Special Relationship
•	St Trinians 2
•	Step Up 3
•	Tomorrow When the War Began
•	Twilight Saga – Eclipse
•	Vampires Suck
A total of 79 titles were researched this month by Media Access Australia. 
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EDUCATION

The Government reviews disability standards in education
Peter Garrett, Minister for School Education, has released a discussion paper which encourages people to contribute to the Review into Disability Standards for Education 2005. The aim of the Review is to improve “the education and training experience for people with disability”.
With enough feedback from the public, the Government will be provided with a better picture of how effective the current education disability standards are. Garrett has stated the review will “help ensure a more inclusive Australian society which enables people with disability to achieve their full potential”.
A key focus for Media Access Australia regarding this review is the issue of access to multimedia for students in schools and universities. Parents and students need to be aware of the Disability Standards so they are fully informed when making a choice of school or educational institution.
The closing date for submissions is 21 April 2011. The review’s discussion paper can be downloaded from: http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/Programs/Documents/DisabilityStandardsDiscussionPaper.pdf  

Read Captions Across America

The annual Read Captions Across America event was held on 2 March. The event, hosted by the National Education Association (NEA) in partnership with the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP), aims to raise awareness – particularly among children and their parents and teachers – that video-based media can be just as effective at encouraging and fostering reading skills as books, as long as captions are always turned on.

Read Captions Across America (RCAA) partners with the NEA’s Read Across America, which is an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child to celebrate reading on the birthday of children’s author Dr Seuss.  

RCAA is the first national reading event to put emphasis on the importance of captioned media (e.g. broadcast, internet, DVD, CD-ROM) as a reading tool for all children, not just those who are Deaf or hearing impaired. Thousands of students have participated in this event since its inauguration in 2006.

The DCMP, which maintains a database of captioned education material, offers information on captioning as well as free media, lesson plans and ideas for involving local communities in RCAA events. The DCMP is funded by the US Department of Education and administered by the National Association of the Deaf.  

For more information see the Read Captions Across America website: http://readcaptionsacrossamerica.org/about.html

Media Access Australia is currently developing an initiative called ‘cap that!’ that will encourage the use of captioned material in Australian schools.

US video highlights learning benefits of captions

Aberdeen Captioning has a released a short video about the learning benefits of captioning on TV. It aims to encourage people to use captions at home, explaining that children’s literacy can increase dramatically if captions are turned on.

The short public service announcement, entitled Closed Captioning Helps Children Learn to Read, can be viewed on YouTube.

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CINEMA & THE ARTS

New captioned cinema location in Melbourne
Hoyts at Forest Hill in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs is the most recent major cinema to offer closed captioned sessions as part of the Cinema Access Implementation Plan, released on 17 July 2010 by Australia's four major cinema groups (Hoyts, Village, Event and Reading) with funding support from the Australian Government.
With sessions commencing on 17 February using the new CaptiView system, Forest Hill Hoyts became the the first Victorian location to screen closed captioned films.

Music for the hearing impaired

Interior Design: Music for the Bionic Ear, a piece of music designed for people with hearing impairments, was first performed on 13 February at the Fairfax Theatre, Arts Centre, in Melbourne. The performance was designed specifically for communicating music through cochlear implants that traditionally are unable to discern between music and generic sound. 
Sound artist and composer Robin Fox led the team commissioned to create the composition, which was funded by the Australian Network for Art and Technology and run by Melbourne's Bionic Ear Institute.

This is only the second time such a concert has been undertaken – the first was in Edinburgh in 2009 when two Scottish composers collaborated to produce a couple of musicals for hearing impaired adults and children.

See Fox’s blog for more information about the project: http://fox2010.anat.org.au/2010/07/21/interior-design-music-for-the-bionic-ear/

US cinema chain expands captioning following litigation

The Regal cinema chain, the largest in the US, has pledged to provide closed captions as it converts its cinemas to digital, beginning with cinemas in the greater Seattle area.

The pledge, reported by Hearing Loss Law online, was in the form of a declaration from Chief Operating Officer Randy Smith. It was in response to a lawsuit brought against a number of cinemas in the Seattle area by Wash-Cap (Washington State Communication Access Project) which is due to go to trial in March this year. The pledge was not just limited to the locations in the Seattle lawsuit, but was for all cinemas as they go digital across the country.  

Regal will be using the CaptiView captioning system, the same system that is being rolled out in Australia.  

In a contrasting approach, competitor chain AMC cinemas, which was also named in the lawsuit, has said that it will only implement any requirements when stipulated by the Department of Justice.

An interesting development in the Seattle settlement is that a new prototype system, currently described as ‘Eyewear’, is being trialled in a small number of Regal cinemas along with CaptiView. This system works by delivering the captions onto the lens of special glasses. The captions can be adjusted for depth-of-field (i.e. close, middle or far away) so that they can work for an individual’s eyesight and distance from the cinema screen.  Whilst this product has not yet been commercially released, it is understood that it may be launched by the access industry in the second quarter of 2011.

Audio description and captioning in Australian cinemas

The following films screened with open captions from December 2010 to February 2011. (Titles marked with an asterisk also screened with audio description at independent cinema locations.)

Salt*
Going the Distance
Vampires Suck*
Sorcerer’s Apprentice*
Despicable Me*
Cats & Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty Galore* 
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps*
Dinner for Schmucks
Eat Pray Love*
The Town*
Life As We Know It*

These movies screened at one or more of the following cinemas:

Sydney – Greater Union George St
Sydney – Greater Union Parramatta
Sydney – Palace Verona
Erina – Hoyts Erina
Newcastle – Greater Union Glendale
Tweed Heads – Hoyts Tweed Heads (previously AMC Tweed Heads)
Brisbane – Greater Union Myer Centre, Queen St Mall
Maroochydore – BCC Sunshine Plaza
Hervey Bay – Big Screen Cinemas
Darwin – BCC Casuarina
Darwin – Cmax Palmerston
Perth – Hoyts Carousel
Bunbury – Grand Cinemas
Whyalla – Whyalla Cinema
Adelaide – Greater Union Megaplex Marion
Adelaide – Palace Nova Eastend
Melbourne – Village Cinemas, The Jam Factory
Melbourne – Cinema Nova, Carlton
Sale – Sale Cinemas
Canberra – Hoyts Belconnen
Canberra – Dendy Canberra
Hobart – Village Hobart	
Devonport – Cmax Devonport

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DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

Commentary: iOS versus Android: two models for achieving access

As the war between Apple iOS and Google Android heats up, we take a moment to look at the different approaches each has taken to accessibility, and how successful these approaches have been to date.

Apple has a long history of including assistive technology in its products as standard features, and at no extra cost. This history started with the inclusion of accessibility features in Mac OS X, and has continued through to their mobile operating system, iOS.
VoiceOver, Apple’s screen reader software, first appeared in iOS 3.0 in June 2009, two years after the first version of iOS (and the first iPhone) was released. Apple used VoiceOver to do what many thought was impossible at the time – make a touchscreen interface accessible for people who are blind or vision impaired. Along with this sophisticated gesture-based screen reader came other accessibility features like Zoom (digital screen magnifier) and white on black for increased contrast. Features such as mono audio and support for captioned video also made the device more accessible for people who are Deaf or hearing impaired.

Apple listened to feedback from the community and continued to refine the accessibility of iOS in subsequent releases. There were improvements to the method of typing on the onscreen keyboard when using VoiceOver and larger font sizes for mail, contacts, notes and messages. The table below shows the progression of accessibility features introduced into iOS from June 2009 to present.

While Apple has focused on a steady progression of accessibility features, Android has been much more haphazard. There was very little accessibility prior to version 1.6, which was released in September 2009. Initiatives such as Project Eyes-Free and third party support from Apps4Android, Inc. have led to improvements in accessibility. Today Android devices can support a number of accessibility features, but there is a lot of inconsistency between which features are built-in or need to be downloaded, and some providers include more accessibility features than others. Ultimately, Android users will be able to access their smartphone or tablet to a degree through text-to-speech support and accessible web browsers and e-mail clients, or through the purchase of third-party accessible application suites, but general access across the platform is still limited.

The evolution of the two operating systems side-by-side poses an interesting question: does accessibility require the support of a major corporation, or can open source evolve to the same level?  

Fundamentally, they are two very different models. The model that Apple uses is one of a highly controlled environment where Apple chooses how much effort and how many resources go into making their products accessible. Open source software on the other hand is reliant on contributions by the open source community. There is a precedent though. Linux is a family of free and open source operating systems, and the open source community has developed some sophisticated assistive technology to work with Linux over the years. Android is certainly evolving rapidly, so it makes sense that its accessibility features may become as polished as those found in iOS or even Linux in the future.

But the fact remains that right here, right now, Apple’s iDevices are leading the way in the blind and vision impaired community. And with Android’s patchy accessibility, and access features for other mobile operating systems such as Windows Mobile 7 forecast to be at least a year away, there is very little competition and therefore very little choice.

With an estimated 650,000 Australians having a vision impairment, you might say that the market for more affordable and more accessible devices is wide open to Android... That is, if they can get their accessibility right. 

So, as the iPad 2 and new Android tablets like the Motorola Xoom gather pace, it will be an 
interesting space to watch.

	Android accessibility features	iOS accessibility features	
June 2009 – December 2009	•	Accessibility support included in Android OS 1.6
	•	VoiceOver gesture-based screen reader
•	Digital ‘rotor’ to change VoiceOver settings and access commands
•	Zoom, digital screen magnifier
•	White on black for increased contrast
•	Mono audio, combines left and right stereo channels into single sound delivered through both earphones
•	Speak auto-text, speaks text suggestions that occur when a words is misspelt
•	Option to practice VoiceOver gestures
•	Accessibility features can be toggled on/off by triple-clicking the home button	
January 2010 – December 2010	•	Accessibility support improved in 2.1, 2.2
•	Project Eyes Free evolved
•	IDEAL free accessibility tools created, including: 
o	Accessible web browser
o	Accessible e-mail client
o	Spoken on-screen keyboard
•	Third-party magnification software
	•	New way to use the onscreen keyboard (Touch Type) including practice mode
•	Adjustable font size for mail, contacts, notes and messages 
•	iBooks app released with VoiceOver support for eBooks and iBookstore
•	Rotor made visible for sighted users, plus added rotor settings
•	Search for text on webpage using Safari
•	Improved web navigation options
•	New VoiceOver gestures
•	FaceTime (iPhone 4 only) enables video communication via sign language	
January 201 – Present	•	Third-party accessibility product suites available   		

Latest Skype app supports video calls on WiFi and 3G

People who are Deaf or hearing impaired can now use the latest version of Skype for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch to communicate using sign language via Skype-to-Skype video calls on WiFi and 3G.

Skype for iPhone 3.0 works on the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (fourth generation) running the operating system iOS 4 or above. Owners of the iPod touch (third generation) or iPad can still receive video calls but cannot make video calls as there is no inbuilt camera. Making video calls from the iPhone 3GS can also be cumbersome without a forward facing camera.

The update opens up more options for people who are Deaf or hearing impaired, providing an alternative to FaceTime. FaceTime provides video chat only to iPhone 4 owners, and only when connected to WiFi.

Skype for iPhone 3.0 can be downloaded from the iTunes store.

New Android app provides accessible onscreen keyboard

A new Android app, Touchtype, will provide Android owners who are blind or vision impaired with their first accessible onscreen keyboard, an accessibility feature that is currently lacking in Android. Touchtype is an iOS-inspired onscreen keyboard for Android devices developed by Nolan Daerilek, who also created the Android screen reader Spiel.  

The app is not only an onscreen keyboard, but also provides spoken feedback when arrowing through text fields, and provides (optional) spoken feedback for shift and alt keys, along with common Android action keys. These added features provide “a partial solution to many of Android’s current accessible input limitations,” Daerikek claims.

To date, people who are blind or vision impaired were advised not to purchase an Android device with an onscreen (i.e. touchscreen) keyboard due to its lack of accessibility. Touchtype will potentially open up the Android market to this community, although it should be noted there are still other accessibility concerns with Android, including the fact that different versions of Android support different accessibility features.

The first (alpha) version of Touchtype was made available on 12 January for Android owners to download, test and provide feedback. For more information see the Touchtype website: http://dev.thewordnerd.info/touchtype/index

Amazon provides Kindle screen reader access on the PC

Amazon has released a plug-in which can make the Kindle for PC software accessible to screen readers. The features that are enabled in the plug-in, which is currently only available in the US, include: 

•	Text-to-speech reading with adjustable voice settings
•	Voice-guided menu navigation
•	Large font sizes
•	High contrast reading mode
•	Keyboard navigation
•	Accessible shortcuts

In order for the plug-in to work, users must already have a screen reader such as NVDA or JAWS activated. Unlike the Kindle itself, there are no restrictions on what materials can be accessed using the screen reader. 

The plug-in can be downloaded on the Amazon website: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kin_pcacc_surl&docId=1000632481

Free and low-cost screen reader use on the rise

WebAIM has released the results from its third screen reader user survey conducted in December 2010. The latest survey, with 1245 valid responses, was a follow-up to the original WebAIM Screen Reader User Survey of January 2009, and the follow-up survey from October 2009. 

The survey showed that the usage of free and low-cost screen readers such as NVDA and VoiceOver has increased significantly since the last survey. The number of people using NVDA as their primary screen reader has increased by nearly 300% to 8.6% over 14 months, while the number of people using JAWS as their primary screen reader is down 7.2% to 59.2%. Furthermore, use of the commercial screen readers most commonly used (i.e. JAWS, Window-Eyes, System Access and System Access to Go) all decreased, while NVDA and VoiceOver increased significantly.
 
The number of respondents who answered ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Do you see free or low-cost screen readers (such as NVDA or VoiceOver) as currently being viable alternatives to commercial screen readers?’ increased by 12.6% to 60.4%. Of those, 54% of JAWS users and 47% of Window-Eyes users answered in the affirmative compared to 98% and 95% of NVDA and VoiceOver respondents respectively.

NVDA is a free and open source screen reader that works with Microsoft Windows. It is developed right here in Australia by two blind developers in Queensland. NVDA has advanced to a point where it is sophisticated enough to fulfil the needs of an average user, and at a much lower cost compared with commercial products.

VoiceOver is a highly sophisticated screen reader produced by Apple. It comes as a standard feature when you purchase the Mac OS X operating system (version 10.4 onwards) which runs on Apple Mac computers and laptops. Although it is not free in the traditional sense, it is the only screen reader that comes as an integrated feature of any operating system and is highly advanced.

The full survey results can be read on the WebAIM site: http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey3/

_________________________________________________________________________

ONLINE MEDIA

ITV Player in the UK now has captions

On 27 January the British commercial network ITV announced that captions are available on its catch-up video service, the ITV Player.

The popular programs Emmerdale and Coronation Street are currently captioned on the service, and ITV has said that it intends to extend captioning to 70% of programs on it. Captions (which are called subtitles in the UK) are activated by pushing the ‘S’ button at the bottom of the screen. Programs on the ITV Player are only available to UK viewers.

The BBC launched captions on its catch-up service, the iPlayer, in 2008, while in Australia the ABC’s iView has had all prime-time programs captioned since March 2010.

Boxee Box now supports playback of ABC iView captions 

The D-Link media player Boxee Box has recently updated its firmware, and now supports the playback of captions on the ABC’s iView service.

Boxee Box is a device that streams Internet content to your television via an active Internet connection. The Firmware update, which includes many improvements to the Boxee Box web browser, now allows for ABC iView content to be played back correctly and with captions, as tested by a Media Access Australia staff member. 

While many devices already support iView playback on a television, few support the playback of captions. Boxee Box offers some accessibility features for people who are Deaf or hearing impaired by supporting a range of captioned content and allowing users to change the size of captions and how they are presented on the screen.

The feature on ABC iView can be accessed by selecting a video from the ABC iView website and clicking the closed caption (marked CC) option. The product is competing with devices such as the Apple TV and the Google TV that also allow you to view Internet content on your television.

For more information, see the D-Link website: http://www.dlink.com.au/boxee/

UK broadcasters create accessible YouView

The major UK free-to-air broadcasters (including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) have collaborated to create YouView. This service, which is expected to launch in the first half of 2011, is a combination of the existing Freeview service with additional catch-up TV accessed via a broadband Internet connection. 

The website www.youview.com includes an extensive question and answer section that promises both broadcast and online content accessibility in the form of captions and audio description. The YouView box (you have to buy a dedicated set-top box to access the services) will include a number of access features as well.

There is no information on box pricing or a specific launch date. Initially this service is for the UK only, but the website hints at international possibilities.

Canadian government to appeal accessible website ruling

The Canadian government is planning to appeal a court ruling that federal government websites are to be made accessible to sensory impaired users by 2012. The court decision was won by a blind Toronto woman in November 2010 after she discovered she could not apply for a federal job online or complete the 2006 census. The court found that government websites were not compliant with accessibility standards and constituted a breach of equality rights. It gave the government 15 months to make its websites compliant with the Canadian Charter of Rights, under supervision by the court. 

The Treasury Board Secretariat said on 11 January that an appeal for the ruling would be filed, addressing some fundamental issues raised by the decision. “These include factual findings made by the Court, numerous aspects of the legal reasoning applied to those facts, and the unusual supervisory order of the court to monitor implementation of its decision."

In the case, the federal government argued that its services are available by way of telephone, in person and by mail, and disputed the discrimination charges. Although the Treasury conducted an audit of 47 of the 146 federal departments in 2007 and found non-compliance with accessibility standards, no follow-up information was presented in court.  

The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) and the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC) came out with strong statements against the Canadian government’s appeal. John Rafferty, President and CEO of CNIB, said, “The fact that it took a court case to plead for full web accessibility in the first place is bad enough, but to learn that the government plans to spend more time and taxpayer money fighting the court’s ruling is just appalling.”

Robin East, President of the nationwide Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, echoed these sentiments, saying, “We are outraged by the government’s decision to appeal this landmark decision.”

Both have suggested that the money and effort that the government will need to invest in this appeal could be better spent on simply getting on with the job of making government information accessible to people with a sensory impairment.

For more information, read the press release from the CNIB: http://www.cnib.ca/en/Pages/Government-Appeal-Jodhan_Jan2011.aspx
and the press release from the AEBC: http://www.accessibilitynewsinternational.com/?p=1950

In February 2010, the Australian federal government announced that it will improve the accessibility of all government sites to level ‘AA’ of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 by the end of 2014. 

BSI web accessibility code of practice formally launched

The British Standards Institute (BSI) has formally launched a new code of practice outlining a process organisations can follow to improve the accessibility of their web products.

The code, BS 8878:2010 Web accessibility, is a non-technical document intended for professionals responsible for policies relating to web products (including websites and cloud applications) such as chief executive officers, managing directors, principals and ICT managers. 

In addition to providing guidance on the process organisations and businesses can follow to improve accessibility, usability and user experience for all, the code of practice outlines commercial, ethical and legal reasons for an organisation or business to increase the accessibility of its web products.

It also states that organisations that wish to produce accessible web products should conform to the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and related standards.

The code can be ordered from the BSI Shop: http://shop.bsigroup.com/en/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030180388

Competition on accessible web development open to all

Web developers from all over the world participated in AIR-Interactive 2011, a competition that focuses on the development of accessible websites.  

The competition requires you to either create an accessible website for a nonprofit arts community, artist or musician, or critique the accessibility of select websites and redesign one page for accessibility. Prizes were awarded at the opening of the SXSW Music and Film Interactive Festival on 11 March.

AIR-Interactive has gone global after web developers from all over the world expressed an interest in participating. The competition was previously available only to Texan web developers.

Drupal 7 released with added accessibility support

Creating accessible webpages using the open source content management system Drupal is even easier after the release of a new version of Drupal on 6 January.

Drupal 7 has over 75 accessibility improvements, including: 
•	Support for parts of the WAI-ARIA specification, specifically for auto-complete fields and progress indicators
•	Improved keyboard navigation 
•	Improved accessibility for form fields, specifically the correct use for the label tag
•	Search engine form and presentation
•	Accessible drag and drop functionality
•	Addition of skip to main content links that will skip over repetitive content (such as menus)
•	Three new themes with improved colour contrast and accessibility
In addition, Drupal modules that are marked with the hashtag D7AX have been developed using the resources for developing accessible modules in Drupal. This means that the modules themselves will be close to if not completely accessible, as well as producing accessible content.

Drupal has a very strong accessibility community which has led and contributed to the latest accessibility enhancements in Drupal 7. The community is already talking about better accessibility support in Drupal 8, including HTML5 and WAI-ARIA. For more information, see the Drupal webpage: http://drupal.org/drupal-7.0

Media Access Australia’s new website was built with Drupal.

UK project Fix the Web hits 500 mark for website access reports

The ‘Fix the Web’ initiative led by Citizens Online in the UK has hit the 500 mark for number of websites reported for accessibility issues, after only launching in mid-November. 
The volunteer-based project provides an easy way for people with disabilities to make complaints about inaccessible websites. Funded by Nominet Trust, Fix the Web has successfully addressed issues on 36 sites, with 60 website owners acknowledging access issues and a total of 83 owners informed.

Websites that have addressed accessibility issues on their sites after Fix the Web reports include the BBC, Facebook, Coventry Building Society and RNIB.
 
English actor and writer and Fix the Web spokesperson, Stephen Fry, said, “We all expect a few glitches when we go on line, but when it comes to accessibility for disabled and older people, the problem is colossal. Fix the Web is doing something about it in a positive and practical way.”

Fix the Web currently has 414 volunteers and 125 reporters, who process the requests, check the accessibility issues of a reported site and report those issues to website owners. They aim to have 10,000 volunteers dealing with 250,000 websites within the next two years. 
You can make complaints by email, through a form on the Fix the Web website, via Twitter (by tweeting #fixtheweb #fail, URL and the problem), or through the ATBar, developed specifically for Fix the Web through partnership with Southampton University. 

The ATBar allows you to quickly report a website’s accessibility issue by clicking the ‘Fix the Web’ button while on a site. This launches a report form that you fill out with the accessibility issue you are experiencing. The report is received by volunteers and the website’s accessibility issues are reported to website owners. 

Visit the Fix the Web website for more information on the initiative: http://www.fixtheweb.net/

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RESEARCH AND POLICY

Survey shows high levels of awareness and use of captioning

A survey commissioned by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) and Media Access Australia (MAA) has revealed high levels of awareness and use of closed captioning on TV in the Australian community and supported the push for more captioning on free-to-air multichannels. 

Conducted by the Australian Institute, the survey showed that out of the 1294 respondents, 94% said they were aware of captioning, 30% said they sometimes used it and 3% said they always used it when watching television.

The new research is significant, not only because it is the first comprehensive national survey of caption usage conducted in Australia, but because the percentage of people who say they sometimes use captions (30%) is higher than the estimated 18.7% of the population who have a hearing impairment. 

“This tells us people use captions for different reasons that aren’t necessarily hearing related – it could be to watch TV late at night without disturbing the household, or in a noisy environment when the sound cannot be adjusted,” said ACCAN Disability Policy Adviser Wayne Hawkins. “It also shows that the networks are missing out on a large potential audience at a time when they are attempting to attract viewers to their new digital channels.”

While hearing loss is an age-related condition, with 2.6 million people aged over 60 affected, the study found that younger people aged 18-24 years of age were the group that most often reported using captions /sometimes’.

“We think this is likely due to young people’s ability to multitask – they might have the TV on in the background while they’re chatting to someone on Skype or doing their homework,” said MAA spokesman Chris Mikul. “Gen Y’s are typically pretty good with technology as they’ve grown up with it. This tells us that they are not only aware of how closed captioning works – they’re turning it on.”

Summary findings
Awareness of TV captions
Survey results indicate very high awareness of captioning among Australians at 94%. Awareness is consistently high across demographic categories, as shown in Table 1.
Use of captions
3% of respondents always use captioning when watching television. 30% sometimes use captioning and the majority do not use captioning (67%) including 6% of respondents who have not heard of captioning. 

Age seems to be the most likely indicator of captioning use, with increases in the proportion of people who always use captioning from middle-age onwards. People over 65 are most likely to always use captioning (5%).
Interest in using captions amongst unaware respondents
Due to the small base size (n=77) for this question the responses have not been broken down by gender, age, etc. as these differences are unlikely to accurately reflect differences in the population.

40% of respondents who have previously not known about captions would be somewhat or very likely to use captioning in the future. 

Results tables

Table 1 – Awareness of TV captions (base size n=1294)
	Yes	
Male	92%	
Female	96%	
18 to 24 years	89%	
25 to 34 years	92%	
35 to 44 years	96%	
45 to 54 years	97%	
55 to 64 years	93%	
65 years or older	96%	
Metro	93%	
Rural	97%	
Tertiary qualification	92%	
Completed school/some tertiary	96%	
Did not complete school	95%	
< 40K	93%	
40 - 80K	95%	
>80K	94%	
All	94%	

Table 2 – Use of captions among aware respondents by Gender
Gender				
 	Male	Female	All	
Yes, always	2%	3%	3%	
Yes, sometimes	32%	28%	30%	
No	58%	65%	61%	
Not aware of captions	8%	4%	6%	
Total	100%	100%	100%	

Table 3 – Use of captions among aware respondents by age
 	18 to 24	25 to 34	35 to 44	45 to 54	55 to 64	65+	
Always use captions	3%	3%	2%	2%	1%	5%	
Sometimes use captions	39%	27%	30%	30%	27%	30%	
No	48%	62%	63%	66%	65%	61%	
Not aware of captions	10%	8%	4%	3%	7%	4%	
Total	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	

Figure 1 – Use of captions

Table 4 – Use of captions among aware respondents by metro/rural
 	Metro	Rural	All	
Yes, always	3%	3%	3%	
Yes, sometimes	29%	32%	30%	
No	61%	62%	61%	
Not aware of captions	7%	3%	6%	
Total	100%	100%	100%	

Table 5 – Use of captions among aware respondents by education
 	Tertiary qualification	Completed school/some tertiary	Did not complete school	All	
Yes, always	2%	3%	3%	3%	
Yes, sometimes	31%	30%	26%	30%	
No	59%	62%	66%	61%	
Not aware of captions	8%	4%	5%	6%	
Total	100%	100%	100%	100%	

Table 6 – Use of captions among aware respondents by income
 	< 40K	40 - 80K	>80K	All	
Yes, always	3%	3%	2%	3%	
Yes, sometimes	32%	31%	27%	30%	
No	58%	61%	65%	61%	
Not aware of captions	7%	5%	6%	6%	
Total	100%	100%	100%	100%	

Table 7 – Interest in captions among unaware respondents
 	All	Count	
Very likely	10%	8	
Somewhat likely	25%	19	
Not very likely	34%	26	
Not at all likely	21%	16	
Not sure	10%	8	
Total	100%	77	

Captioning levels on new commercial digital channels

MAA recently conducted a survey of captioning on the commercial digital multichannels (7Mate, 7Two, GO!, Gem, Eleven and One HD). Under the Government’s rules, these channels are exempt from the captioning requirements that cover the primary channels. The only programs which must be captioned on them are those which were previously screened on the same network’s primary channel with captions. The survey shows that, in general, the commercial multichannels are only captioning the bare minimum they are obliged to do. This contrasts with captioning on the ABC’s multichannels, ABC2 and ABC3, which regularly exceeds 80%. (Most of the content on SBS’s multichannel, SBS2, consists of subtitled programs, or foreign language news programs which are exempt from captioning requirements.)

The survey covered two weeks, 29 January to 11 February. Caption levels on programming from 6 am to midnight ranged from 0% (One HD) to 45% (Gem). Most of this programming consisted of captioned repeats. The exceptions to this were some first-run programs on 7Two and 7Mate, new episodes of V on GO!, and Neighbours on Eleven.

Of particular concern to caption users is the fact that some programs which were previously screened on primary channels with captions (in some cases, for many years) are now being migrated to the new digital channels, and are not being captioned. The survey showed that this was particularly the case with Eleven. Although, as noted, first-run episodes of Neighbours were being captioned, new episodes of The Simpsons, Futurama, Dexter, The Office and Californication were not.

Below are the survey results for total captioning, first-run programs captioned, and programs migrated to the multichannels which were not captioned, for programming between 6 am and midnight. (This is the time period covered by the agreement brokered by the Australian Human Rights Commission, which will see captions levels rise during those hours to 85% on the primary channels by the end of this year.)

The Government has announced that a review of the multichannel regulations will be conducted before the end of 2012.

Total captioning (6am - Midnight)				
 	7Two	7Mate	GO!	Gem	Eleven	One HD	
Minutes	3400	6480	3105	6760	2040	0	
Percentage	22%	43%	21%	45%	13%	0%	
Hours/day	4.0	7.7	3.7	8.0	2.4	0.0	
							
First-run programs captioned (6am - Midnight)			
 	7Two	7Mate	GO!	Gem	Eleven	One HD	
Minutes	90	180	120	0	300	0	
Percentage	1%	1%	1%	0%	2%	0%	
Hours/day	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.0	0.4	0.0	
							
Programs migrated to multichannel uncaptioned (6am - Midnight)	
 	7Two	7Mate	GO!	Gem	Eleven	One HD	
Minutes	0	0	0	0	560	0	
Percentage	0%	0%	0%	0%	4%	0%	
Hours/day	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.7	0.0	

_______________________________________________________________________

Glossary

Audio description: The descriptive narration of all the visual elements of a TV    
program, movie, DVD, performance or other media, giving access for the blind or vision impaired. AD may be pre-recorded and delivered as an option for television programs or DVDs, or it may be performed live (e.g. for a theatrical performance). 

Captions: A transcription of the audio elements of a TV program, movie, DVD, 
performance or other media, giving access for the Deaf and hearing impaired. Unlike subtitles, captions include song lyrics, descriptions of sound effects and music, and are often positioned and coloured so as to make it easier for the viewer to identify who is speaking. Captions may be divided into:
•	Open captions: Captions which are ‘burnt onto’ a video or digital image and will be seen by anyone who looks at it, and
•	Closed captions: Captions which a viewer chooses to see (e.g. by accessing teletext captions on TV, or activating the captions on a DVD).   

Signing: Access to a TV program, movie, DVD, performance or other media via a 
signer using one of the various Deaf sign languages, e.g. Auslan (Australian Sign Language). Some TV programs in the US and UK have a signer occupying a space on the screen.

Stenocaptioner: A highly trained captioner who captions live programs using a 
stenographic keyboard.

Subtitles: This generally refers to English translations of foreign language TV 
programs or movies, presented as text at the bottom of the screen. It can also be a straight transcription of the dialogue of an English language program (this is a common feature on DVDs). Note however that captions are often called subtitles in the UK and other parts of Europe. 

Teletext: The broadcast data delivery system used in Australia to transmit captions 
on analog television. 

Acronyms

ACCAN	Australian Communications Consumer Action Network
ACMA		Australian Communications and Media Authority
AD		Audio description
AEBC		Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians
AHRC		Australian Human Rights Commission
ASTRA	Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association
BCA	Blind Citizens Australia
BSA	Broadcasting Services Act
BSI	British Standards Institute
CAP	Classroom Access Project
CNIB	Canadian National Institute for the Blind
CRTC	Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
DBCDE	Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
DCMP	Described and Captioned Media Program (US)
FCC		Federal Communications Commission (US)
MAA		Media Access Australia
NCAM		National Center for Accessible Media (US)
RCAA		Read Captions Across America
RNIB		Royal National Institute of Blind People (UK)
W3C		Worldwide Web Consortium
WCAG		Web Content Accessibility Guidelines