Media Access Australia launches Accessible Regions Campaign

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Tuesday, 12 October 2010 09:17am

Media Access Australia today launched its Accessible Regions Campaign (ARC), which focuses on ensuring that regional news and current affairs programs are broadcast with quality captions.

Centred on a Caption Quality Survey, ARC invites individuals and groups in regional areas to monitor the quality of captions on regional news and current affairs programs each week.

Regional Broadcast Monitors, volunteers from the community, will complete the survey each week, either online, on paper or by email, noting any issues they encountered and providing feedback.

ARC is about raising the profile of accessibility issues in regional areas.

Now more than ever before there is the opportunity to make real progress in regional access. With the strength of the Independents in Parliament and the creation of a new Minister for Regional Australia, Media Access Australia believes that a concerted strategy to identify and solve accessibility problems could yield positive results.

More information about accessibility and quality of captions can be found in the television section of the Media Access Australia website.

In the past, regional broadcasters have had a much poorer record on meeting captioning requirements than their metropolitan counterparts.   Regional broadcasters are subject to far less scrutiny than metropolitan broadcasters, which naturally means that there is less pressure on them to meet their targets.

To make ARC happen, we need your help!

Media Access Australia is asking individuals in regional areas to help. We need individuals to monitor the level and quality of captions on regional news and current affairs broadcasts.  Volunteers are asked to watch these programs and perform spot checks, making sure that all parts of a program are aired with captions—including live crosses!

If you would like to get involved, either to spread the word or to become a Regional Broadcast Monitor yourself, please contact MAA and let us know!

Phone:                 02 9212 6242

TTY:                     02 9212 6242

Email:                   accessibleregions@mediaaccess.org.au


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