Cinema

With support from the FIFM Foundation, audio description of movies for Moroccan audiences will continue through the year with a further six movies slated for the service. With the addition of audio description, which adds a secondary soundtrack of narration of a movie’s visual elements, blind and vision impaired film fans can feel part of the full cinema experience.

The formal announcement follows on from a July 2010 ruling by the King County Superior Court in the state of Washington that AMC can afford to provide the necessary equipment to show all caption-rendered movies with captions. AMC was ordered to do so within 90 days of conversion to digital projection. AMC initially appealed the order then made the verbal commitment to full captioning in August last year.

In making the commitment, Landmark emphasised its focus on arthouse, avant-garde movies that may appeal to more mature audiences, which naturally includes an older population with a greater prevalence of hearing loss. Landmark CEO Ted Mundorff believes that the move may benefit Landmark significantly more than it would benefit the typical suburban cinemas that cater more to younger audiences.

An alternative to the CaptiView device currently in use, the Rear Window Captioning (RWC) system projects an LED display of captions onto a Perspex sheet that can be placed over the cinema screen, replicating the style of open captions. IMAX Melbourne Museum will be the first cinema to implement RWC outside North America.

"This is a really exciting day for people who are blind or vision impaired in the Hunter region, said Lauren Henley, media access campaign leader for peak national consumer organisation Blind Citizens Australia (BCA).

The indicative plan to 31 December 2011 provided access to 61 screens across 31 locations.  Media Access Australia can report that 58 screens across 29 locations were in operation by the given date. Of the 58 screens in operation, 39 screens show both captions and audio description and 19 screens show captions only.

The Association jumped at the chance to be part of such a significant initiative for those who are blind and vision impaired after they were approached by the theatre company, said Dr Margaret Crowley, Chief Executive Officer.

The three performances are:

As reported in The West Australian, Event Cinemas at Innaloo is one of three WA cinemas currently offering accessible cinema technology to people who have a hearing or vision impairment, allowing them to enjoy the cinema experience, for some for the first time in years.