Australian policy and legislation

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Audio description trial hailed a great success

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The trial of audio description on Australian television ended Sunday night on ABC1, with the Australian drama Dangerous Remedy being the last program to be described for blind and vision impaired viewers.

Since the trial commenced on 5 August, an average of two hours of audio described content was broadcast each night. Other Australian programs described during the trial included Rake, Lowdown and The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.

“The ABC is to be commended for doing such a good job with the trial,” said Chris Mikul from Media Access Australia. “The quality of the audio description, particularly on the locally produced shows, has been terrific.”


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Feature: Aussie TV finds its voice

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As the trial of audio description on ABC1 draws to a close, we met with the talented captioners turned describers tasked with finding a voice fitting of the ABC's uniquely Australian drama.

A man walks into a bar.

Or is it a restaurant? Maybe it’s a train station. Or it could be a hospital and the man is actually a woman.

This is the process each of Australia’s 600,000 blind and vision impaired people go through when they watch TV. Dialogue, music and sound effects go a long way to tell a story. But without knowing what’s on screen, watching TV becomes a guessing game.


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Captioning Award winners announced

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Last night the Deafness Forum of Australia celebrated the achievements of the media and entertainment industry in providing access to the one in six Australians who are Deaf or hearing impaired. Hosted by Rodney Adams, an Itinerant Teacher of the Deaf, the evening was a celebration of the impact of captions on literacy, human rights and social inclusion.

The winners in each category were:


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Unpublished


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Call in your feedback on the audio description trial

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With the trial of audio description on the ABC coming to a close, Blind Citizens Australia (BCA) is hosting a series of teleconferences to gather feedback on it from blind and vision impaired viewers. This feedback will inform the submission to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy which will advocate for a continued audio description (AD) service on ABC 1.

BCA are interested in hearing about any issues people had trying to access the AD service, the quality of the description offered and what programs they would like described should any service be continued.


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