News: Accessible cinemas coming to Australia in a big way over next few years
News: Accessible cinemas coming to Australia in a big way over next few years
by Ted Mc from BlindMind.net, 25 July 2010
While the distribution of audio described DVD's in Australia is among the best in the world per capita, making use of both Australian-produced audio description, as well as importing a large number from overseas, our per capita availability in cinemas is nothing short of shameful, with just 12 movie screens showing audio described and closed captioned movies across the entire COUNTRY.
12.
Add to that, the recent bid by 3 of the 4 major cinema chains in Australia to be excempted from being sued under disability discrimination act of 1992, and things were definitely not heading the right way.
But that's about to change.
Bill Shorten, government Minister for Disibilities, has announced an agreement from all the cinema chains to dramatically increase the number of accessible screens from 12 to 246 between now and 2014. That puts Australia well ahead of the U.S., who have an equally insufficient number of accessible theatres, and even ahead of the UK in terms of screens vs. population.
For more information, read the full Press Release
Posted by Ted Mc at 25 Jul 2010, 9:33 AM 
Categories: Visual Impairment, Blind, Accessibility, Advocacy, Audio Description, News
Tags: Bill Shorten audio description accessibility advocacy visually impaired Media Access Australia Australia cinema access closed captioning blind low vision
Categories: Visual Impairment, Blind, Accessibility, Advocacy, Audio Description, News
Tags: Bill Shorten audio description accessibility advocacy visually impaired Media Access Australia Australia cinema access closed captioning blind low vision
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