Scott has had a long career in access. He was formerly CEO of the Australian Caption Centre (the not-for-profit organisation from which Media Access Australia grew), and has a long-standing commitment to captions being of the highest possible quality.
In a media release, Ai-Media CEO Tony Abrahams said, “Mr Scott will independently assess our captioning quality based on a robust, measurable and verifiable system consistent with international best practice. Audit reports will be made available to our clients, and will drive continuous improvement.”
Scott’s appointment comes as the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) prepares to launch a new set of caption quality standards which will apply to both free-to-air and subscription television, and determine how it handles complaints about captions from members of the public. The development of these standards followed amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act in 2012 which gave the ACMA new powers to ensure that captions are of adequate quality, based on factors including readability, comprehensibility and accuracy.
The ACMA consulted with community representative organisations, broadcasters and access suppliers, and released a draft of the standards for public comment in December. The standards will come into force at the beginning of July.
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