From:	ceo@audiology.asn.au
Sent:	Monday, 7 December 2009 3:44 PM
To:	disabdis
Cc:	ceo@audiology.asn.au
Subject:	Opposition to Cinema Industry gaining exemption from DDA 
for next two and a half years!

Importance:	High

It has come to my attention that the Cinema Industry has applied for an exemption from 
the Disability Discrimination Act in relation to captioning for the next two and a half years 
and I am adamantly opposed to this exemption being granted.  

Exemption means, that if accepted, deaf and hard of hearing people will lose their right to 
complain about the lack of captioning at any of the 125 cinemas owned by Village, Hoyts, 
Reading and Greater Union Cinemas for the next 2.5 years.  If accepted, captioning will be 
offered at 35 cinemas just 3 times a week (which translates to one movie a week, mostly off 
peak - just 0.3% of the estimated 40,000 films screened by these four major cinemas each 
week).  

Given that one in five Australians over the age of 15 has a significant hearing loss, then 20% of 
the population is being disadvantaged in their positive cinema access for a questionable gain 
by the cinema sector! 

The DDA is the only legal means many hearing impaired people have for seeking any level of 
consideration of their impairment needs - when attempting to manage their hearing disadvantage 
- and to have its conditions waived in relation to cinema captioning takes away a significant 
source of enjoyment that allows a hearing impaired individual to share with family and friends. 
It’s hard enough to share the ‘real’ world with those close, so taking away a meaningful source 
of access to the ‘hearing’ world for the hearing impaired is disgraceful – to make this decision 
one assumes on the basis of its impact on the bottom line or it’s too hard, is totally 
unacceptable.

Do the hearing impaired have no rights?


Regards,
 
Monica
 
Monica Persson
Chief Executive Officer
Audiological Society of Australia Inc trading as
AUDIOLOGY AUSTRALIA