Captioning grant
The captioning grant is a Federally-funded project to ensure that community and education DVDs and video downloads are made accessible through captions. The grant is funded by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) and administered by Media Access Australia (MAA).
What type of programs are eligible?
The grant is intended to assist in the captioning of DVDs and video downloads produced by community organisations, as well as DVDs and downloads with an education focus.
DVDs produced by community organisations usually have a low budget and the organisation may not have the funds to include captioning. Community DVDs generally don’t have a wide distribution and tend to be specialist in nature. DVDs produced by a government organisation are not normally eligible as these DVDs would normally be captioned under a government access policy.
Education DVDs are those that are used for teaching purposes in the classroom, lectures or seminars. The main objective of the grant is to ensure that subject areas that have not been captioned in the past are made available with captions.
There is a great need for captioned educational DVDs that support the curriculum, and the grant will target titles that are used widely in specific subject areas including English, Science, History and Geography.
DVDs that are used in teaching situations, but are considered to be “entertainment” (such as a DVD version of a text being studied) should be captioned for general release and would not be eligible for funding under this grant.
How to apply to get a title captioned
In addition to fulfilling these categories, DVDs must be first-release (or a major re-release) and available to the public in Australia (although this can be through a mechanism other than sale – such as a DVD being shown in a classroom or hospital setting). All copies of the DVD must be available with captions.
If you are a producer of, or own the rights to, material which is going to be released on DVD or as a video download, and you think it falls within these criteria, you can apply to Media Access Australia to have it captioned under the grant.
Teachers and other professionals who know of upcoming DVDs or downloads can submit a request that these be captioned under the grant, and Media Access Australia will investigate whether it is possible to do this.
For further information on the Captioning Grant, please phone Chris Mikul on (02) 9212 6242 or send him an email.
Education DVDs captioned under the grant can be found on MAA's interactive Accessible Education Database.
Specific initiatives involving the grant
National Geographic Channel and Media Access Australia
At the end of 2009, the National Geographic Channel, in consultation with MAA and with the assistance of the Captioning Grant, distributed 500 sets of 63 hours’ worth of captioned DVDs to educational bodies around the country. Students who are Deaf or hearing impaired in upper primary and lower secondary were the beneficiaries of this access initiative.
MAA and National Geographic Channel partnered to allocate these resources according to need and isolation. The primary beneficiaries of this access initiative were students who are Deaf or hearing impaired in upper primary and lower secondary school.
The task of distribution to Department of Education and Training, Catholic and Independent sectors around the nation considered factors such as the availability of Itinerant Teacher of the Deaf services and support unit services.
The National Geographic Channel titles cover traditional subject areas in science, engineering and geography. Cross-curriculum uses of the DVDs reflect the dynamic nature of National Geographic Channel titles. The categories covered are ‘people and culture’, ‘adventure and exploration’, ‘wildlife/environment’, ‘biology and human body’, and the DVDs will be used in various secondary social science courses.
The DVDs are featured on MAA’s Accessible Education Database which is helping to connect teachers with captioned content. The database is constantly updated, and we appreciate the input of teachers from around the country to help us build this fabulous resource. If you have a list of captioned content, please email Karina Scott.
