Forum on broadcast television captioning
Sydney, 19 March 2001
Attendance: Graeme Innes, David Mason (HREOC); Gordon Neil, Serena Beresford-Wylie (Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts); Bridget Godwin, Paul Richardson (Seven network); Creina Chapman (Nine network); Paul Walsh (Ten network); Simon Cordina (Federation of Australian Commercial Television Stations); Michael Ward (ABC TV); John Goozee (SBS TV); Brian Rope (Deafness Forum of Australia); Karen Lloyd (Australian Association of the Deaf); John Byrne (Deafness Council of WA); Nicholas Tayeh, Kay Rosano (Captioning campaign); Larry Laikind (Disability Discrimination Legal Advocacy Service, Brisbane); Rachel Bickovsky (Disability Discrimination Legal Centre, Sydney); Frank Peterson (Individual deaf person); Robert Scott (Australian Caption Centre); Ross Cameron MP (MHR for Parramatta)
This forum was convened by HREOC in response to a number of complaints under the Disability Discrimination Act regarding levels of captioning on broadcast television.
For previous documents in this matter see captioned television inquiry index
Industry and community participants agreed that the increased levels of captioning achieved by networks in 2001, in compliance with the requirements introduced under the Broadcasting Services Act captioning regulations, were a major achievement and would require a period of "bedding down" before substantial further increases in captioning could be implemented. Participants noted however the desire of deaf and hearing impaired people for equal access to television services by further increases in captioning levels within a reasonable time.
Participants agreed to establish a working party, to be chaired by HREOC, and with membership of two broadcast television industry representatives; the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts; the Australian Caption Centre; the Australian Association of the Deaf; the Deafness Forum of Australia; and an invitation to be extended to the national Working Party on Captioning. This working party will meet within 3 months to discuss:
(1) the possibility of an appropriate long term timetable for further agreed increases in captioning; and, (in parallel with this)
(2) research into priority areas to which increased captioning should be applied
(3) possibilities for increasing the availability of caption decoding capacity in television receivers, including the possibility of universal provision
(4) copyright issues affecting access to caption files on overseas material
(5) implementation issues and feedback mechanisms regarding current captioning
(6) issues affecting availability of stenocaptioners and possibilities for increasing supply.
The television industry undertook to take a lead role in investigating and costing research options on priority areas. The Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts agreed to undertake initial investigation of decoder and copyright issues. The Australian Caption Centre undertook to take a lead role on stenocaptioner availability issues.