In a discussion paper, ‘Contemporary community safeguards inquiry’, the ACMA notes that one of its ‘enduring concepts’ is: “Australians should enjoy reasonable and equitable access to the media and communications infrastructure, services and content necessary to promote their effective participation in society and the economy.”
Ofcom notes that the quality of pre-prepared captions (which are called ‘subtitles’ in the UK) is generally very good, and the majority of complaints it receives are related to live captioning. As caption quotas have risen, so have the number of programs being captioned live. Most of this captioning is now undertaken using speech recognition technology, but this is imperfect and errors are common.
Following consultation with viewers and representative groups, Ofcom has concluded that the four key dimensions that affect the quality of live captions are:
That compromise is one that allows exhibitors to screen captioned movies across a wide range of sessions where the captions are seemingly ‘open’ to those that are wearing filtering glasses, very similar to 3D glasses. The glasses do not carry projection equipment making them lightweight and less bulky than current captioned cinema eyewear such as Sony’s.
Someone with a print disability is defined as a person without sight, a person whose sight is severely impaired, a person unable to hold or manipulate books or to focus or move his or her eyes, or a person with a perceptual disability, such as dyslexia.
Organisations with speakers at the conference include Vision Australia, the Australian law Reform Commission, Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind. Media Access Australia has two speakers: CEO, Alex Varley, and project manager, Dr Scott Hollier.
