Audio description takes flight: Emirates sets an accessibility first for airlines

Transcript

17 August 2014

Voiceover: Media Access Australia, inclusion through technology.

Roberta: Audio description is set to take off with the announcement recently by Emirates Airline that it has introduced this feature to its inflight entertainment system. Project Manager, Ally Woodford, from Media Access Australia is with us today to tell us more of this and other airline accessibility developments. Welcome, Ally.

Ally: Thanks, Roberta. Hi, everyone.

Roberta: Now, is this a first for an airline or just a first for Emirates?

Ally: No, it's actually a first for an airline. Well, I guess we've had captions and foreign language subtitles available for 10 years or more for the deaf and hearing impaired but, access to inflight entertainment for the blind and vision impaired, it's pretty much non-existent. So for Emirates to make this announcement, it sets a new benchmark for inflight entertainment systems, for sure.

Roberta: Do you think, though, that other airlines will take note of this?

Ally: Well, the thing is that Emirates, it's got a long history of winning, I guess, highly coveted airline awards. It recently added to the mix the 2014 Skytrax World Best Airline Inflight Entertainment System Award and they've actually won that 10 years in a row. So they're the airline that other airlines look to for this kind of thing.

Roberta: So let's talk about Emirates entertainment content as a start. What level of content is audio described?

Ally: Well, they've announced that they are audio describing 16 movies throughout the month of August and those movies will change each month but generally around 16. All the movies, they're Disney movies, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're only for children. Disney do do a lot of M and MA15 Plus movies as well.

Roberta: Is the audio described content available on all flights?

Ally: No, but for us here in Australia it's generally going to be. At the moment Emirates has installed the system on all of its Airbus A380's and the Boeing 777 aircraft and that's generally what serves Australia, so we should be right.

Roberta: Okay. Now, Ally, how did this all come about?

Ally: Well, like most, I guess, world class airlines, there's a genuine commitment to customer service and experience and on the back of winning awards for the inflight entertainment system already it was a case of, you know, how can we make this even better. They did have, or they do have, an existing relationship with Disney to provide content and, Disney, they're very familiar with the production of audio description on their DVDs. Disney was able to assist and provide the described content for inflight.

Roberta: Well, that's a really good move forward but how do people know about it, Ally?

Ally: Yeah, look, that's a good question. I think what the case would be is that in the guide they have, the monthly airline magazine that you get when you first get on board, they have in the back of the magazine all the content for their inflight entertainment systems. And I know with the caption content there's usually a CC logo for closed captions or ST for subtitled next to the content. So I can only assume at this point that they will add AD to the audio described content. Obviously that's not great for people that are vision impaired. They will need assistance in finding that content and also the fact that that they are touch screen services, so there will be some assistance required to describe content.

Roberta: Yeah, I was thinking too that this could be a very good thing that could be announced maybe more throughout the broadcast of radio stations, such as ours and the RPH stations, around the place. And there's a lot of them, so I think maybe we need to let them know so that they can let their listeners know that if they are flying, go Emirates and you can get audio described movies.

Ally: Yeah, definitely.

Roberta: So have you got a list there or anything new that's coming out on audio description because it's really going forward, isn't it?

Ally: In the air or on the ground?

Roberta: On the ground.

Ally: No, I don't actually have a list at the moment but what we can be assured of is that everything that's coming out of Hollywood these days, it's going to be closed captioned and audio described. The producers, the six major studios, over there really do have a commitment now to that and it's not just for DVD but the prior format of that is cinema and there's commitment for cinema. So that then follows through to DVD.
Roberta:    Well, it's another good news show. I'm really pleased about that, so thank you very much for all of that, Ally.

Ally: Thank you.

Roberta: I've been speaking with Project Manager, Ally Woodford, from Media Access Australia. Now, to find out more about audio description on Emirates or general entertainment accessibility visit the Media Access Australia website, www.mediaaccess.org.au, or call the office with any questions on 02 92126242. That's 02 92126242. And Media Access Australia is a supporter of this program.

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