Blind Citizens Australia's discrimination claim

Transcript

14 July 2013

Roberta: The trial of audio description on ABC television last year gave Australia’s blind and vision impaired meaningful access to television for the first time. Now, as we are seeing little progress towards a permanent service, Blind Citizens Australia is lodging a number of complaints with the Australian Human Rights Commission claiming that the ABC is discriminating against people who are blind or vision impaired. And we have on the line Vice President of Blind Citizens Australia, Greg Madson, to share with us the details. Welcome, Greg.

Greg: Thank you. 

Roberta: Now, so what is the nature of the complaint?

Greg: Well, mostly the nature of the complaint is that the ABC is failing to provide an audio description service on the programs it provides, so that people who are blind or vision impaired can access television much like everybody else. And they did roll out a trial last year between August and November that went quite well, it was quite successful. And after it finished in November we thought that they were going to provide some funding in the budget, and the upcoming budget will be able to provide that service and to continue on. But sadly, they didn’t provide any funding, so the service is stopped, and it doesn’t look like continuing, or it doesn’t look like happening in the near future. So we’ve decided to push things a little bit and to have a campaign of complaints through the Disability Discrimination Act, and get this service up and running.

Roberta: And how many complaints were lodged, and who are the complainants?

Greg: The complainants are BCA members. I am one of them, and there is a further 20, so there is 21 complaints in all.

Roberta: And, of course, I was going to ask you what prompted you to make the complaint, but of course we know what that is now. So how important is audio description to people who are blind or vision impaired?

Greg: It’s extremely important. When you are watching a television show, when you are blind or vision impaired, you’re trying to keep up with what’s going on, but quite often there are visual aspects of it that are integral to the plot, and if you miss those, you are at a loss. And the only thing really left to you is to interrupt the viewing of those people that you’re with, your family, your friends, your partner’s. And I’m sure they find it annoying to do that and need to have that description coming from them, it interrupts their viewing, as I’ve said. And during the trial they didn’t need to do that because the description was made available, so that I and others like me can watch TV in peace.

Roberta: And of course remembering that there are a lot of vision impaired people who live alone, too.

Greg: There are, that’s right. There are a lot of people who live alone, so constantly trying to figure out what’s going on is not good to your viewing experience.

Roberta: Now, Greg, what are other countries that are doing around AD in this way?

Greg: Well, New Zealand has got AD going, the US. I was just reading something yesterday in regard to the United Kingdom. They are now I think increasing their AD availability to 84 stations, and I think they have legislated that 10 percent of content needs to be audio described. But a lot of, as stated in the article that I was reading, a lot of the stations are actually up around the 20 percent mark. Just, they don’t have to be up there by legislation, but they just do, because while they are doing the content, they just, they do it. So…

Roberta: It’s a whole other audience, isn’t it?

Greg: It is, it is. 

Roberta: And that’s what they’ve got to understand.

Greg: Well, exactly right. It is another audience. And with an ageing population, and more and more people becoming vision impaired, it’s going to affect a lot more people. So this is going to help a lot of people into the future.

Roberta: Apart from money, is there anything else holding up getting a permanent service on Australian television?

Greg: No, I don’t think so. And even the money, apparently it’s only going to cost about a million dollars to get it up and running. So you’re not talking, in the big scheme of things, you’re not talking about large amounts of money. I’m not aware of anything else that’s holding it up, just the will of government to do it.

Roberta: To do it. Well, if you would like to get involved in this, for assistance on how to lodge your own DDA complaint about audio description, you can contact Blind Citizens Australia on 1-800-033-660. That’s 1800 033 660. Well, good luck with all of that, Greg. I’m sure that you’ll make an impact.

Greg: Let’s hope so.

Roberta: I’ve been speaking with Greg Madson who is the Vice President of Blind Citizens Australia. And I’ll just give you that number once more: 1800 033 660. And this segment has been brought to you courtesy of Media Access Australia. Media Access Australia are supporters of this program. 

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