In 2009 the Australian Human Rights Commission received an application on behalf of Hoyts Corporation, Greater Union Organisation, Village Cinemas and Reading Cinemas (the applicants) for a Temporary Exemption under section 55 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) from complaints in relation to the provision of captions and audio description in cinemas operated by the applicants.

The industry applied for this exemption, offering in return, to equip a total 47 cinemas with both audio description and captioning equipment by the year 2013.