Temporary exemption application
under DDA section 55: Broadcast television captioning

Exemption application

see also: submissions in response and see
now decision .

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has received an application
on behalf of broadcast television providers - ABC and SBS Television and
networks Seven, Nine and Ten - for temporary exemption under section 55
of the Disability Discrimination Act regarding provision of captioning.

The exemption is requested
for a five year period, during which the providers will implement proposals for
substantial increases in captioning.

The application
and proposal are attached (in MS Word format as submitted).
In summary they provide for

• Captioning of all programs (other
  than sport) which commence in prime-time until their conclusion
• Staged
  increase in hours to reach minimum goals - 55% by end 2005 and 70% by end 2007
  (6am to midnight programming)
• Priority to be given to captioning of pre-school
  and children's programming - by end 2007, over 1400 hours of pre-school, children's
  and schools' programs will be captioned each year.
  

Call
for submissions

In accordance with its policy on exemption
applications, the Commission seeks to give interested parties an opportunity to
participate in the process of considering this application.

As noted
in the application, this application and the associated proposal have already
been the subject of extensive discussions with disability representative organisations
through a forum convened by the Commission.

Accordingly, in this instance
a shortened period of four weeks is being provided for comments. Submissions are
requested by 9 May 2003, preferably by email to disability@humanrights.gov.au .
Submissions may also be addressed by mail to Disability Rights Unit, Human Rights
and Equal Opportunity Commission, GPO Box 5218, Sydney 1042. Where submissions
are made by mail, a copy on disc should be included if possible.

To
promote open public discussion and exchange of views, the Commission intends to
make submissions publicly available by posting submissions made electronically
on its Internet site. Requests for material to be treated as confidential should
be clearly indicated.

Graeme Innes
Deputy Disability Discrimination
Commissioner
11 April 2003