The Arts Access Australia survey is aimed at all arts and cultural venues regardless of whether they currently offer audio description. Taking between five and ten minutes to complete, the survey will gauge the level of audio description offered compared to other access services venues are providing.
Michael Small, formerly of the Australian Human Rights Commission, was a joint winner of the Minister’s Award for Excellence in Disability Reform. During his time at the commission, Small was instrumental in achieving significant improvements in access to television, cinema and DVDs through increased levels of captioning.
There’s a term kids learn in Year 9 Drama: mise en scéne, or ‘everything but the script.’ It’s used to help set the atmosphere of a performance, the light, the costume, the set design, the acting. It reminds everyone working on a play that the script is only the skeleton, on to which must be placed muscle, skin and clothes. For most theatre goers it is these elements which carry much of the play’s meaning, but if you’re blind or vision impaired, this meaning can be lost.
The Association jumped at the chance to be part of such a significant initiative for those who are blind and vision impaired after they were approached by the theatre company, said Dr Margaret Crowley, Chief Executive Officer.
