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Help get AD back on the ABC
Transcript
28 April 2013
Roberta: As many of our listeners know, the ABC held a trial for audio description late last year. This was very popular and everyone was keen to see an ongoing service. There have been some developments in the last couple of days, and to talk about this, Media Access Australia CEO Alex Varley joins us. Welcome Alex
Alex: Thank you Roberta.
Roberta: Now, what is happening with the quest to keep audio description going?
Alex: Well Roberta, as your listeners would know, we did have that trial last year and there was a massive postcard campaign coming from viewers who totally supported it. What’s been going on since then is a lot of stuff behind the scenes.
And in fact, the organisations, Blind Citizens Australia, Vision Australia, ACCAN, who’s a consumer advocacy organisation, and our organisation, Media Access Australia, have now actually formally written to both Mark Scott, the Managing Director of the ABC and Minister Stephen Conroy, saying look, we want this ongoing service to happen. It’s been too long and it needs to happen right now.
Roberta: Are there any things that could put a stop to this, such as whether TVs can receive it or the ending of analogue television, which I think is later this year?
Alex: Well, one of the concerns was, coming from the first trial, was that there was this report that was written by the ABC about the trial and that hasn’t actually been released. But our understanding is it talks about a couple of issues. One of them is the idea about, well maybe TVs can’t receive audio description. And we certainly assured everybody that that’s not the case, that TVs these days have audio description capability built in to them.
And then the other one was about, well, is there enough spectrum, is there enough space to actually deliver this service? So what we’ve done in our letter, and the letters are actually available on the campaign website, is we’ve said, “why don’t we just have an ongoing service trial?” So something that doesn’t have the full pressure of a full service but allows them to play around with any problems that they might have and fix them as part of that, but deliver it as a long term service on the ABC.
Roberta: Are we looking for a wider service or is this a push to get it on the ABC?
Alex: Well there was a lot of discussion about whether this service should go to the other television channels and, you know, ultimately that should happen. And that’s obviously a quest that everybody wants to see met. But as I said before, there are some ongoing potential problems and we would like to see the ABC solve those and they are the ones who have most experience of audio description in Australia.
Now, and of course they’re the only true national service. So as a compromise, the organisation said let’s push for it to happen permanently on the ABC, and then we’ll work from there. And of course there is going to be a federal election later in the year, so that really also had a big impact on how we played this out.
Roberta: That was going to be one of my questions Alex, actually, with the election coming up. Will that alter things, do you think? And do you know if the Opposition is really, truly following this?
Alex: Well, up until now there’s been pretty much support across the Parliament. And what we were very careful about was to see if we could sort this out before elections came around. So one of the big issues is, of course is the ABC has its funding agreement up in a few weeks time, as part of the federal budget. And that’s for three year funding. So we saw that as a really good opportunity to try and get this sorted out as part of that process and the ABC can negotiate with the Government on how this particular service is funded.
If that doesn’t happen, well then of course the election promises become the next cab, but really we’d like to try and avoid that. We think this can be solved by everybody in an amicable way.
Roberta: Yes, that would be the best option I think. Now, how can people show their support for audio description on the ABC?
Alex: Well of course, last time round that support was absolutely crucial and had a massive impact. It showed that people really cared about the service. So if they go to the campaign website, what they’ll see there, as well as the letters that have been sent, is some letters that they could download to send to the ABC and to Minister Conroy, or an email that they can actually just access through a form on the website and send that as well. And of course, the website is fully accessible for blind people.
So if they could get out there and just send that email and show their support that would be a really good way.
Roberta: So make sure you support this very important service by sending a letter or an email. It’s very easy and the website has all the details for how you can do this. Thank you Alex, we’ll be talking again, I know, very soon.
Alex: Thanks again Roberta.
Roberta: I’ve been speaking with Media Access Australia CEO Alex Varley. And Media Access Australia is a supporter of this program.