International policy and legislation

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US deafness organisation wins next stage of Netflix captioning suit

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The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) has had a significant win in its lawsuit against the online movie provider Netflix, with the District Court of Massachusetts holding that the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to website-only businesses.

The NAD brought its suit against Netflix in July 2011, alleging that it violated the ADA by only providing captions on 5% of its ‘Watch Instantly’ streamed programming. Judge Ponser denied Netflix’s motion that the ADA applied only to physical businesses.


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Access rules for UK broadcasters to be extended to international channels

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The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, is proposing a change of rules so that UK broadcasters whose services are intended for other European countries would have to provide the same levels of captioning, audio description and signing as domestic channels.

Ofcom’s ‘Proposals for access services on non-domestic channels’ are in response to the European Union’s ‘Audio Media Service Directive’. This states that “Each Member State shall ensure all audiovisual media services transmitted by media service under its jurisdiction comply with the rules of the system of law applicable to audiovisual media services intended for the public in that Member State”.

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Outcry as Irish TV reduces captioning

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TV Access, a coalition of organisations in the disability and ageing sector, has strongly condemned new Access Rules released by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) which will see reduced levels of captioning on television and no increase in the already low levels of sign language and audio description.

Under the new rules, caption levels on RTÉ One will fall from 98% to 83% and on RTÉ Two from 80% to 60% (RTÉ is Ireland’s public broadcaster), while there will be similar reductions on  other channels.


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Illinois cinema chain ordered to become accessible

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One of the USA’s largest cinema companies, AMC Theaters, has reached a settlement with the Attorney General of Illinois which will see closed captioning and audio description provided in 460 cinema screens across the state. The case arose after concerns were raised by Illinois disability rights advocacy organisation Equip for Equality.

This comes after AMC Theatres’ formal announcement reported by Media Access Australia in January to commit to closed captioning across its complexes across the USA. The first state, California, will commence installation in mid-2012. Although not included in the announcement, audio description will also be installed nationally.

The settlement brings a more prescribed implementation program to Illinois, and includes the following clauses:


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