Blind/vision impaired TV, DVD, Cinema & the Arts news

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Audio described movie in Mudgee NSW

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A community event is being held in Mudgee, NSW to raise awareness of audio description. A screening of the Baz Luhrmann film Australia will be screened at Mudgee Town Hall with open audio description – an additional audio track providing narration of visual elements for the benefit of viewers who are blind or vision impaired.

The event has been organised by local resident Mary Lovett, who in April received a Medal of the Order of Australia for her services to blind and vision impaired people. She is the founder and past president of Mudgee Vision Impaired Persons Friendship Group and the chairman of the Central West NSW branch of Blind Citizens Australia.


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Accessible documentary DVDs

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In an expansion on our regular report on accessible entertainment DVDs, Media Access Australia has taken a look at recent documentary titles to see what is available for fans of this genre who require captions or audio description.

Listed below are just some of the interesting titles available from retail outlets with both captions and audio description. These synopses are sourced from movie website IMDB.


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Is Blu-ray as accessible as DVD?

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In a twist to Media Access Australia’s regular statistics on accessible new release rental DVDs, we have taken a look at titles available over recent months and included the alternative Blu-ray format for comparison to see which format is ahead with accessibility. 

Blu-ray has been an alternative home entertainment video format since 2006 and sold itself on offerings of greater picture quality as well as increased disc space which would allow for more features. This space was promoted by some home entertainment industry representatives as the ‘sure thing’ that would lead to increased levels of closed captioning and audio description.


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Australia falling behind in video on demand captioning

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Media Access Australia today released a report, Captioning on Video on Demand: It’s Time for Australia to Catch Up, which shows that most video on demand and catch up TV providers are failing to make their content accessible for Deaf and hearing impaired viewers.

“Consumers are increasingly watching TV programs and movies online, on a variety of devices,” said the author of the report, MAA’s TV Project Manager, Chris Mikul. “In Australia, the only networks which provide captioning on their catch up services are the ABC and SBS. The only Australian video on demand service to offer captioning on some content is iTunes.”


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