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Captioned movies

Page last updated 12 December 2001

Notice of inquiry

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has received a complaint under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992  alleging discrimination by a cinema and cinema chain in lack of provision of subtitles or captions with English language films.

The Disability Discrimination Act makes discrimination unlawful regarding access to services (section 24), except where providing non-discriminatory access would involve unjustifiable hardship.

The Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner sought submissions to

• assist her and the parties to the complaint to identify options for resolution of the complaint
• assist her to determine whether the power to decline the complaint under section 71 should be exercised (on grounds including that the act complained of is not unlawful or that another more appropriate remedy is reasonably available)
• assist her to decide whether the subject matter is such that it should be referred to the Commission for determination.

 In particular submissions were requested on issues affecting the feasibility of implementation in Australian cinemas of the rear window captioning system of closed captioning developed in the United States, or other options for captioning of movies for the benefit of deaf and hearing impaired persons.

Submissions received

Australian Caption Centre
Australian Federation of Deaf Societies
Bridges Communications
Deafness Council Western Australia
Deafness Council Western Australia additional submission
Deafness Forum of Australia (MS Word file)
National Working Party on Captioning
Personal Captioning Inc 
Personal Captioning Inc additional submission
Village Roadshow : PDF or MS Word file
Western Australian Deaf Society
WGBH Boston

Resource Links

One of the aims of this inquiry is to provide information resources about solutions that improve access.  Links will be added here as they become available. Please let us know if there is something you would like to see listed.

BL&S is the systems integrator for the MoPix theatre products. These currently include the Rear Window captioning system for the deaf and hard-of-hearing and products incorporating audio description of visuals for blind patrons. These products have been developed under a grant from the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research, a division of the U.S. Department of Education.

2. TRIPOD Captioned Films

TRIPOD Captioned Films (TCF) is a non-profit, community outreach project of the TRIPOD Model School Program in Burbank, CA.  A Program for Deaf and Hard of hearing children and their families, TRIPOD has received support from the entertainment industry since its inception in 1982.  TRIPOD arranges for recently released movies to be shown in open captioned format at select screenings.

3.Closed Captioning Web

This Internet site provides useful links to a number of sites dealing with the broader issue of captioning and a discussion of the options for making movie theatre accessible.

4.Australian Cinema Industry

For information about the cinema industry in Australia see:

.:

Screen Network Australia: