Report on the accessible cinema rollout: January to June 2012

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Tuesday, 10 July 2012 16:45pm

Following on from the successful 2011 rollout of captioned and audio described cinema locations under the Cinema Access Implementation Plan, the first six months of 2012 have delivered more locations but fallen behind the expected schedule.

The indicative plan to 30 June 2012 provided access to 123 screens across 62 locations nationally. Media Access Australia can report that 82 screens across 42 locations were in operation by the given date. Of the 82 screens in operation, 69 screens show both captions and audio description and 13 screens show captions only.

There is a considerable variance in the number of functioning screens compared to the numbers indicated on the plan. It is publicly noted that the plan is subject to change, and Media Access Australia has been informed by a few of the locations that they expect to commence accessible sessions soon. 

A major hold-up remains the provision of audio description on screens that are currently caption-only.

A significant number of locations have not commenced any type of accessible sessions a number of months after the indicated date. They include Event Cinemas Browns Plains, Burwood, Castle Hill, Garden City Mt Gravatt, Hornsby, Rockhampton and Shellharbour; Hoyts Bankstown; and Village Airport West, Albury, Century City, Fountain Gate, Geelong, Karingal, Morwell, Rivoli, Sunshine and Werribee.

A few of these locations indicated that their equipment has been installed but for various reasons they have not commenced sessions.

Two positive variances to the plan is the addition of Event Cinemas Townsville, with the commencement of closed caption sessions on one screen in its complex, and Village Cinemas Bendigo, with both closed captions and audio description on two screens.

You can view the full rollout schedule on the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs’ web page for the Cinema Access Implementation Plan.This page also provides a Question and Answer document addressing key issues raised for consideration.

This report does not take into account the current accessible independent cinema locations.

Find accessible locations near you or read about attending accessible sessions on our At the cinema page.


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