Deaf or hearing impaired

The quality of live captioning was a major topic discussed at the recent The Future of Subtitling conference held in London on 10 November 2014. Media Access Australia CEO Alex Varley presented at the conference and he gives his impressions on the main issues from the UK perspective.

The UK communications regulator Ofcom has released its Television Access Report for the first half of 2014, which shows that once again, most British broadcasters are exceeding their access requirements. The report comes as the Federal Government is trying to end similar reporting requirements which are in place for Australian broadcasters.

Now that a legal case has been brought against Coles for a lack of web accessibility of its online shopping site, and that a similar case in the US against online grocer Peapod has been settled, it’s time for online retailers to act on improving access for people with disabilities.

The annual Access All Areas Film Festival brings accessible screenings of the best new Australian films to venues near you. The festival travels to Parramatta, Casula and the Sydney city centre from 1-5 December and includes open captioned and audio described sessions.