Sydney Morning Herald: June 3 2015 http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/blind-and-vision-impaired-viewers-are-left-in-the-dark-by-australian-tv-broadcasters-20150527-gh7c4x.html Illustration: Mick Connolly
Last month, the ABC quietly announced it was beginning a 15-month trial to provide around 14 hours a week of audio-described content for blind and vision impaired viewers through its iView service. For vision-impaired people, it's big news – but has only come about after Vision Australia lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission against all three commercial broadcasters and SBS, citing indirect discrimination; advocacy group group Blind Citizens Australia had already lodged a complaint there against the ABC. A large proportion of Australian television viewers have for years been left – literally – in the dark when it comes to much of what's happening on their favourite programs. Audio description (AD) adds key visual elements by using a second audio track to describe action sequences, characters' gestures and facial expressions and the like; it's essentially the equivalent of closed captioning for the hearing impaired, a service that has long been standard on most Australian content. But for Australia's estimated 480,000 blind and vision-impaired people, watching television can be a frustrating, often pointless exercise or one that involves having someone help out with describing events that aren't obvious through sound or dialogue. The iView trial comes after an initial trial in 2012, and while it's been cautiously welcomed by blindness organisations, it's seen as a very small step in an area in which Australia lags woefully behind the rest of the world. "Many sighted people just can't understand the impact of not being able to see the visual aspects of television – the trial in 2012 really showed that blind people got a lot of value out of it and technically it's not difficult to do," says Michael Simpson, Vision Australia's General Manager of NSW Client Services and Accessible Information Services, who has been blind for 40 years. Frustratingly, much of the content broadcast here – and some even created here like Home And Away and Neighbours – is already audio described for international markets but not Australia. Technically, Simpson says, it's not difficult to do but requires a "new mindset". "It's the mindset and the regulatory framework, like closed captioning years ago. There's regulations now about the amount of captioning that stations have to provide," hesays. Amanda Tink, a vision-impaired business consultant from Sydney, and one of the complainants to the ABC after the 2012 trial, agrees. "We are behind the UK and the US and Canada by a long way and even New Zealand and a number of European countries who all do some form of AD," she says. "And now even Netflix, who have only been in the country two minutes, have announced they will provide AD for lots of content." The streaming service, launched in March, will offer AD for its original programming, beginning with its new series Daredevil – about a blind superhero. They also plan to roll out AD on previous seasons of programs including Orange Is The New Black, House of Cards and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The ABC trial of just 14 hours' programming is disappointing, says Tink. "That covers children's programs, documentaries, drama ... most people won't be watching all of those things, so it probably really equates to about two hours. In terms of the ABC's commitment to AD, it's not nearly enough." She says the fact that the service is only available on catch-up, rather than broadcast television, is also less than ideal – many blind and visually impaired people don't have internet access or iPhones which, at present, are the only way to access audio described content. But Tink is hopeful the iView trial will become a permanent – and expanded – part of the ABC's programming. Programs with audio description have also found to be valuable for people with learning disabilities or on the autism spectrum; even more reason, she believes, that it should be adopted by all the broadcasters. "Having the iView trial is great, but we still need to talk about the need to have AD on broadcast television because apart from the fact that's the way most people can access television, it gives you access at the same time as everyone else," she says. Discussions between Blind Citizens Australia and the Federal Government are being brokered by the Australian Human Rights Commission, and are ongoing. "The trial is a positive step (but) permanent, real-time, audio description on broadcast Australian television, similar to what is available now in many other countries, is the only way to remove current discriminatory barriers for Australians who are blind or have low vision." A spokesperson for ABC's iview declined to comment, directing us instead to the Government's Department of Communications, which specifies that The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 does not require television broadcasters to provide audio description services. A spokesperson from lobby group Free TV could not be reached. -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
