Graham was elected to the board of the Australian Caption Centre in February 1997, and soon after elected as Chairman, a position he held until his death. Over the next 15 years he led the organisation through a number of major changes, always with foresight, common sense and corporate courage.
In his tenure, the organisation was instrumental in achieving the adoption of captioning policies in all state and territory governments, the introduction of compulsory captioning quotas through the Broadcasting Services Act and subsequent quotas, the introduction of captioned and audio described cinema in Australia, the commencement of captioning on Qantas inflight entertainment, audio description production on DVDs built locally, and the adoption by Screen Australia of captioning and audio description policies for feature film and subsequent DVD.
Graham’s skill set was most prominent during the successful sale of the Australian Caption Centre’s commercial operation to Red Bee Media in 2006. The beginning and ensuing growth of Media Access Australia to its position today is one that we are sure Graham was very proud of.
Graham was excited by the prospects of our new social enterprise, Access iQ, launched only last week, and the upcoming audio description trial on the ABC. He has left an indelible mark on access-to-media services in Australia and we will continue our work here at MAA with Graham’s legacy firmly in mind.
His leadership and friendship will be greatly missed by the board members and staff of Media Access Australia.
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