International policy and legislation

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We cover the world’s largest access conference

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Hosted in Berlin every two years, the Languages and the Media conference brings together media access experts from around the world. Our CEO, Alex Varley will be presenting at the conference and keeping Media Access Australia’s audience up-to-date as the action unfolds on November 22-23 via the website and Twitter.

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Closed captions required for online TV in USA

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The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced a September 30 deadline for TV networks and online video providers to include closed captions on their content as required by  the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA). The act makes it a legal responsibility of TV networks to provide closed captions on content streamed online if it has already been broadcast with closed captions on TV.

Confirmation of the deadline provided by the FCC had been postponed due to members of the Digital Media Association, which include media providers such as Apple, Amazon and Google, arguing that more time was needed to implement the requirements. However, the FCC pushed back and confirmed that TV networks and video sites must provide closed captions on their content –offline or online – by 30 September.


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Australians with disabilities pay too much for IT

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The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has published a report outlining how Australians pay too much for technology and that people with disability are being hit hardest.

ACCAN’s submission to the Inquiry into IT Pricing, which is being conducted by the House Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications, investigated how much Australians pay for software and hardware compared to the rest of the world. In particular, assistive technology costs more here than elsewhere in the world, yet Australians with disability are more likely to be under financial pressure.

Digital media and technology: 

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Audio description now mandatory on US television

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As of 1 July, audio description is once again mandatory on television in the US, with the top four networks and top five cable TV channels obliged to screen 4 hours of audio described programs each week.

Audio description was originally made mandatory in 2000 with a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), but this was struck down after a successful legal challenge by the Motion Picture Association. Reinstating it was one of the key provisions of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, which was signed into law by President Obama in October 2010.


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