What have been a few of the highlights of 2010 for you in your area of access?
Undoubtedly the cinema announcement concerning the major cinema chains of Hoyts, Village, Event and Reading cinemas is one of the most significant media access announcements this year in Australia, and possibly the world.
Audio description on DVD has attained a new height on new release rental DVDs, consistently reaching the high 20 to low 30 percent mark. I was also happy to see Icon Film Distribution win the Deafness Forum’s DVD Captioning Award this year. Icon, as a smaller DVD distributor, has worked significantly hard to improve its accessibility levels and has been justly rewarded.
What was involved in the cinema announcement with the major cinema chains?
Passion. A lot of hard work from many people both inside and outside Media Access Australia went into the development, but the passion with which consumers fought to get such an outstanding result cannot go unnoticed and is proof that making a stand can get results.
What was one of the challenges faced in your area in 2010?
Cinema and DVD are formats where access has been around for a long time but increasing the levels of it can be very hard. As largely unregulated areas, we have seen plateaus in statistics which, without legislation or radical global changes to production, are hard to increase. But we will continue to work with the local and international industries to see what we can squeeze out for 2011!
How do you see accessibility improving in 2011?
Through the cinema announcement we’re going to start seeing major changes in the way we enjoy our movies. The flexibility the changes will allow, with patrons able to go on any day of the week to any session time they wish, will see a significant shift in attendances to cinemas.
What’s your top pick for a gift with accessible features this festive season?
Go crazy with the latest release audio described and captioned DVDs: Jim Carrey’s A Christmas Carol, Sly Stallone and friends in The Expendables, Leonardo Di Caprio in Inception, Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl in Killers, Tom Cruise & Cameron Diaz in Knight and Day and Jaden Smith in The Karate Kid.
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