Cinema and DVD

Cinema and film are covered by Section 24 of Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) prohibiting disability discrimination in the provision of goods, services and facilities. The DDA, the Human Rights Commission, and the specific government grants have driven the most considerable improvements in this area.

Cinema 

Cinema captioning was established as a result of an Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) brokered agreagreement. This covered 8 locations initially and then expanded to 10 in 2005. It is important to note however that while the agreement was brokered by the Commission it does not operate as an exemption to the DDA. Therefore, consumers are still able to make complaints to the AHRC alleging that they have been discriminated against.

The AHRC has recently rejected an application from Hoyts, Greater Union (including Event and Birch, Carroll & Coyle), Village, and Reading cinemas for a temporary exemption agreement under Section 55 of DDA. Under such an agreement, the four cinema providers would have been exempt to complaints under the DDA.  The cinemas had offered to undertake to: 

• Increase the number of screens in cinemas operated by the applicants capable of delivering captions to 35 over the next 2½ years following the granting of any Temporary Exemption;
• Provide audio description capability in all those 35 screens, including a retro-fit of the current 12 cinemas offering captioning to include audio-description;
• Commit the applicants to a review of the current program in consultation with representatives from key stakeholders starting 9 months before the end of the Temporary Exemption period; and
• Commit the applicants to working with representatives of disability organisations to ensure the availability of accessible information on film schedules within 6 months of the granting of any Temporary Exemption.

The AHRC stated that it made the decision in light of the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act (Cth), and that 'on balance the Commission did not consider the application to represent sufficient progress to be considered reasonable'.  The AHRC stated that it will make available its full decision soon.

The 'Helping Older Australian Enjoy the Movies: Accessible Cinema' is a scheme being established by the Commonwealth Department for Health and Aging to fund the introduction and promotion of 12 new accessible cinemas. While this scheme provides funding for new equipment, it too does not nullify the operation of the DDA.

Screen Australia access guidelines

Currently, all feature movies financed by Screen Australia must be captioned, under the Screen Australia Production Guidelines which are outlined in the Screen Australia Captioning Guide. These guidelines are currently under review. This captioning requirement has existed since 1 July 2007, under the programming financing guidelines of the Film Finance Corporation, which were adopted by its successor, Screen Australia. Similar requirements are common international practice.