The media access enquiry - a review of electronic media

The Department of Broadband, Communications, and the Digital Economy is conducting an investigation into access to electronic media for the hearing and vision impaired.  The Media Access Review has been ongoing since April 2008, and has involved the Department's release of a Discussion Report and responses to the report, and the Department's subsequent release of a Discussion Paper and responses to the discussion paper.  You can investigate the whole Media Access Review at the DBCDE website.

Media Access Australia has summarised both the Discussion Report and the responses from consumer and industry groups below:

• Discussion Report
• Responses to the Discussion Report

Discussion Report

The Minister for Communications, the Hon Stephen Conroy, and Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities, the Hon Bill Shorten, jointly released the Access to Electronic Media for the Hearing and Vision Impaired Approaches for Consideration Discussion Report 2009 (Media Access Report) at Parliament House, Canberra, in November 2009. 

The Report does not outline specific targets, quotas or regulations, but provides an outline on how the Government is planning to approach the issues of access to electronic media. The Government expects to table a final report with recommendations during 2010.

Both Conroy and Shorten called for disability groups, representatives and other interested people to participate in the process and provide their input.

“This is a step forward and the Report gives us a much clearer view of where the Government’s policy priorities lie,” said Media Access Australia's (MAA's) CEO, Alex Varley.

“Clearly the Government is viewing this in the context of other media regulation and issues such as the switch off of analog television by 2013 and the National Disability Strategy.  Whilst some will be disappointed that they will have to wait until next year to see clear recommendations, it does give everybody a chance to consider the most up-to-date information and produce a better final outcome.”

The Australian Human Rights Commission, which has been instrumental in improving access in television, cinema and DVD, also welcomed the release of the report. Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes said, “There have been many important improvements over the past few years, but there are many areas where we clearly do not yet do as well as we should. I look forward to the Minister finalising this investigation and moving on to the next stage of mapping out real progress.”

Summary of the key proposed approaches by Government

• Government considering an overall review of captioning and audio description on electronic media in 2013.
• Government considering bringing all captioning targets under the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA).
• Government considering amending the BSA to include captioning targets for subscription television broadcasters by end 2014.
• Government is considering conducting a technical trial of audio description on the ABC prior to digital switchover (2013).
• Government will review the captioning rules applying to multichannels.
• Government will facilitate caption quality standards being covered by voluntary guidelines or the development of a code of practice for television before digital switchover (2013).
• Cinema will be included in the overall review in 2013.
• Government is considering a consultation process with stakeholders regarding DVDs to include captions and audio description as part of a voluntary industry standard, including labelling. 
• Government will consider further regulatory measures if availability of captions and audio description on DVDs does not improve by the end of 2012.
• Government will continue to monitor international developments in accessible Internet content and encourage industry to partner with disability groups to improve online content accessibility by the end of 2013.
• Government will consider mandating captioning and voiceover of emergency announcements.
• Government will consider discussing strengthening requirements for captioning television commercials with industry.

Submissions closed on 29 January 2010.

Download: Summary of MAA's response [Rich Text - 41.99 KB]

Download: Copy of MAA's full response [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 330.37 KB]

                    Copy of MAA's full response in text format [Word 2007 Document - 238.14 KB]

See also the page summarising responses to the previous Media Access Review.

Responses to the Discussion Report

A large number of submissions were made from deaf and hearing-impaired representative groups, blind and vision-impaired representative groups, industry, media access groups, and from individuals.  Issues discussed included the captioning and audio description (AD) of televised and online content, multichannels, and emergency and advertising information.  You can read the submissions (rtf format) at the DBCDE website.  Below are summaries of submissions by representative and industry groups.Most submissions called for regulatory certainty surrounding legislative requirements of access to media.  At present, there is some blur between access requirements contained in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (Cth) and the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth).  

Representative Groups
Deaf and hearing-impaired groups included the Deafness Forum of Australia (DFA) and Deaf Australia (DA), the Deafness Council of Western Australia (DCWA), and the Parent Council for Deaf Education (PCDE).  The DFA believes that 2013 is too long to wait for a follow-up review.  All groups support captioning targets of 100 percent of all programming (not just 6.00am to 12.00 am), both for free-to-air and subscription television.  The groups believe that current captioning requirements of primary free-to-air channels should be required of digital multichannels immediately after analogue switch-off.

The groups noted that caption quality is a major issue, stating that ‘poor quality captions are as bad as no captions at all’.  The groups do not support a voluntary industry standard for AD and captioning of DVD and Blu-Ray content, as one already exists, which the DFA believes is largely ignored.  The DCWA disagreed with the Report that the refurbishment of cinemas for access is a purely commercial decision, and that cinema access is greatly important.  The DFA and DA noted that it is imperative that emergency information be captioned.  The PCDE stressed the importance of captioning of film and online content for education.

Blind and vision-impaired groups included Vision Australia (VA), the Australian Blindness Forum (ABF), Blind Citizens Australia (BCA), the Royal Society for the Blind (RSB), and Vision 2020.  The groups strongly welcomed the Report’s call for a trial of AD on the ABC.  Indeed, BCA called for free-to-air and subscription television providers to be required to provide the same levels of AD as they are of captioning, and for ACMA to be empowered to enforce these requirements.  VA and the ABF called for technological developments in the area of accessibility, including overseas, to be closely monitored and implemented by media providers.  The RSB noted that cost should not be a barrier to providing access, and that ‘Good Design is good design for all’.

VA called for regulation of minimum standards for DVD and cinema AD and captioning.  VA and Vision 2020 highlighted the need for the refurbishment of any cinema to include making that cinema able to provide captions and AD, and for cinemas to have minimum AD requirements.  VA called for all DVDs which are captioned or audio described overseas to be just as accessible on their Australian release, and for all publicly funded Australian films and DVDs to be compulsorily accessible.

Industry Groups

Free TV Australia, the industry body of commercial broadcasters, opposed both any minimum requirements for AD of television content and 100 percent captioning requirements on primary channels.  Free TV also opposed the development of a captioning quality code of practice, and of requirements to caption online audio-visual content.  Free TV suggested that emergency information should be made available both visually and in audibly, but that strict requirements should not be imposed on broadcasters.  Free TV suggested that multichannels not be required to meet current captioning requirements until full analogue switch-off.

The ABC remains committed to achieving universal access to its programming, and has consistently met and exceed its minimum captioning requirements.  The ABC stated that, to caption 100 percent of programming would cost $12 million.  Although suggesting that captioning of online content may incur new costs, the ABC has begun offering some captioning on its iView programming.  The ABC suggests that it may experience difficulty in providing AD, as this requires additional spectrum space as well as any associated costs with producing or acquiring AD of programming.  The ABC has a policy of providing open captions on emergency broadcasts if technical issues prevent the transmission of closed captions.

The SBS provides meets its current minimum captioning requirements of English-language programming, and provides English-language subtitles for most of its non-English programmes.  The SBS believes that requiring AD on its online content would be prohibitive, and welcomed a Government-funded trial of AD on broadcast programming, and noted that its multi-lingual content could pose further issues for AD.

The Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association (ASTRA), the industry body for subscription television providers, believes that subscription television is similar in nature to commercial free-to-air multichannels.  As such, it believes that subscription television should be treated differently to primary free-to-air channels, and experience lesser access requirements.  ASTRA is opposed to providing AD, but some subscription channels have begun ‘investigating’ AD.  ASTRA is opposed to providing captioning and AD on online content.

Google remains committed to achieving universal access to its online content, and has recently developed ‘Auto-cap’—automatic captioning of (some) YouTube videos.  Google however, opposes legislative requirements for online access.  Telstra is generally supportive of making online content more accessible, and suggests that any funds provided by Screen Australia to caption and audio describe audiovisual content for cinema and DVD release also be used to provide captioning and AD suitable for that content to be made available online.

The Australian Visual Software Developers Association (AVSDA), an industry body representing video and DVD distributors and copyright owners, does not believe that it should have to work with representative groups to promote access.  AVSDA, while supportive of providing closed captions and AD on major titles, does not support being required to providing accessibility features on other, smaller titles.