Captioned movies
Page last updated 12 December 2001
Awards for Cinema Captioning
The introduction of cinema captioning in Australia has received recognition from the Australian Caption Centre and the WA Disability Services Commission in two separate awards.
Dr John Byrne has been awarded the Roma Wood Community Award by the Australian Caption Centre. The award recognises his role in advocating for the introduction of cinema captioning in Australia. Dr Byrne's complaint led to a HREOC inquiry into cinema captioning and a susequent proposal by Hoyts, Village and Greater Union Cinemas, in co-operation with the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia, to show first release captioned films in a number of cinema's throughout Australia.
The Disability Services Commission in WA has awarded Hoyts Cinema City in Perth their Small Business 'Action on Access in the Private Sector' award for screening captioned movies as part of the national program.
For more information on cinema captioning and the current schedule of films being shown go to the Media Access Australia web page and look at 'Captioned cinema - what's on and where.'
Documents from HREOC captioned movies inquiry
- Press release on launch of captioned movies : see also launch speech by Sev Ozdowski and reports from The Australian ( text supplied for HREOC site courtesy of The Australian newspaper) and Zdnet news
- Final meeting of captioned movies forum and close of inquiry
- Proposal from industry
- Notes from third meeting of captioned movies forum
- Australian Association of the Deaf bulletin comments on captioning
- Outcomes of second meeting of captioned movies forum
- Press release on open captioning trial
- Notice of inquiry
- Outcome of forum conducted on 25 February - summary now available
- Background notes for public forum
- Submissions
- Resource links
- Request for Proposals: Assessment of Movie Captioning Technology (deferred pending open captioning trial)
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has received a complaint under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 alleging discrimination by a cinema and cinema chain in lack of provision of subtitles or captions with English language films.
The Disability Discrimination Act makes discrimination unlawful regarding access to services (section 24), except where providing non-discriminatory access would involve unjustifiable hardship.
The Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner is seeking submissions to
- assist her and the parties to the complaint to identify options for resolution of the complaint
- assist her to determine whether the power to decline the complaint under section 71 should be exercised (on grounds including that the act complained of is not unlawful or that another more appropriate remedy is reasonably available)
- assist her to decide whether the subject matter is such that it should be referred to the Commission for determination.
In particular submissions are requested on issues affecting the feasibility of implementation in Australian cinemas of the rear window captioning system of closed captioning developed in the United States, or other options for captioning of movies for the benefit of deaf and hearing impaired persons.
Submissions are still being accepted, preferably by e-mail to disabdis@hreoc.gov.au , or by mail to Disability Rights Unit, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, GPO Box 5218 Sydney 1042. The Commissioner intends to make submissions publicly available on this site as they are received, except where material is specifically marked confidential.
Australian
Caption Centre
Australian
Federation of Deaf Societies
Bridges
Communications
Deafness
Council Western Australia
Deafness
Council Western Australia additional submission
Deafness
Forum of Australia
(MS Word file)
National
Working Party on Captioning
Personal
Captioning Inc
Personal
Captioning Inc additional submission
Village Roadshow : PDF
or MS
Word file
Western
Australian Deaf Society
WGBH
Boston
One of the aims of this inquiry is to provide information resources about solutions that improve access. Links will be added here as they become available. Please let us know if there is something you would like to see listed.
1.Motion Picture Access Project
The Motion Picture Access Project (MoPix) of the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) is a project of the WGBH Educational Foundation in Boston, Massachusetts.
MoPix has developed systems that enable movies to be accessible to deaf viewers by the use of closed captions and to blind patrons by the use of descriptive narration.
http://www.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/ncam/mopix/index.html
BL&S is the systems integrator for the MoPix theatre products. These currently include the Rear Window captioning system for the deaf and hard-of-hearing and products incorporating audio description of visuals for blind patrons. These products have been developed under a grant from the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research, a division of the U.S. Department of Education.
DTS, a world leader in digital sound for motion pictures, collaborated with MoPix, Universal Pictures and General Cinema Theatres to premier the first use of River View captioning in a commercial theatre in Sherman Oaks, California on November 17, 1997. U.K. trials scheduled for August 2001.
4. TRIPOD Captioned Films
TRIPOD Captioned Films (TCF) is a non-profit, community outreach project of the TRIPOD Model School Program in Burbank, CA. A Program for Deaf and Hard of hearing children and their families, TRIPOD has received support from the entertainment industry since its inception in 1982. TRIPOD arranges for recently released movies to be shown in open captioned format at select screenings.
4.Movie Access Coalition
The Movie Access Coalition (MAC) represents eleven organizations serving deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States. The National Association of the Deaf was a founding member of MAC and remains its most active participant. MAC advocates for
having open captioned movies distributed through regular channels. The goal is to have these movies shown in neighbourhood theaters, on a regular basis and at regular times. MAC believes that once movie studios see how many people attend captioned films, they will have an economic incentive to provide these films to theaters.
http://www.nad.org/CaptMovieRW.html
This Internet site provides useful links to a number of sites dealing with the broader issue of captioning and a discussion of the options for making movie theatre accessible.
http://www.captions.org/theater.cfm
6.Australian Cinema Industry
For information about the cinema industry in Australia see:
The Cinema Connection: http://online.socialchange.net.au/tcc/Cinema_Theatres/Australia/index.html
Cinema and Theatre Historical Society Victoria Inc.:
Screen Network Australia: http://www.sna.net.au/