Cinema

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Cinema to become more accessible

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Media Access Australia commends the Federal government announcement today that will see every major cinema chain location made more accessible for patrons who are deaf or blind by the end of 2014.

The Hon Bill Shorten MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities, said today, “At the moment people with impaired hearing are being forced to travel across town to catch a Wednesday matinee, because there are so few cinemas offering captions. I am excited that major cinemas have recognised that this form of discrimination is not acceptable, and that they will improve their business by attracting a new group of customers.”

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Major cinema chains offer access in over 130 cinemas

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The four major cinema chains of Hoyts, Village, Greater Union Birch Carroll & Coyle and Reading Cinemas have made an offer about improving cinema access.

The cinemas’ proposal is that by the end of 2014, captions and audio description would be available in at least one screen in every one of the 132 cinema complexes run by these operators. The proposal also includes a timeframe for implementation and proposes the establishment of an advisory group.

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A new style of audio description under discussion

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Next Wednesday, 19 May, an expert panel at the City University London will discuss a new style of audio description (AD) which has recently been developed by researchers there. Called ‘cinematic audio description’, this style of AD aims to convey the ‘full cinematic experience’ by incorporating into the descriptions information about the way a film has been shot and edited.

Traditionally, audio describers have been trained to avoid the use of cinematic terms like ‘close-up, ‘long shot’ or ‘fade out’, and to concentrate instead on supplying a more narrative description similar to a novel. The research project, ‘Calling the Shots’, has already produced one film described in this new style (David Lean’s Brief Encounter). A screening of this in November 2009 elicited a positive response from the audience, but more research needs to be done to determine whether this form of AD will be beneficial for blind and vision impaired viewers.

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Another cinema access decision in the USA

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A Washington State court has now added a decision to a growing number confirming that the provision of captioned access to movies is required under disability regulations.  In this case the Washington State Communications Access Project had challenged the cinemas in the court to provide “same service” to hearing impaired patrons as others under State disability access laws. 

In the context of the decision, the cinemas (Regal, AMC, Cinemark, Silver, Lincoln Square) argued that they were providing the same service to all patrons. The court decision was that to do so, they had to make “reasonable accommodations” which could include open or closed captioning (but didn’t discount other solutions). A trial of technologies will take place in mid-May to determine the best solution.

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