From:	Estelle Fyffe 
Sent:	Monday, 7 December 2009 3:49 PM
To:	disabdis
Subject:	Concern regarding application by major cinemas for  exemption from the 
Disability Discrimination Act. 

I understand that Village Roadshow, Greater Union, Hoyts and Reading Cinemas are requesting 
exemption from the Disability Discrimination Act for a period of two and a half years, and that if . the 
exemption is granted, cinemas will provide captioning and audio description for a minimum of three 
(3) screenings in 35 cinemas around Australia.   If so I wish to express my concern as I understand 
that it could mean that  Australians who are Deaf, hard of hearing, legally blind and vision impaired, 
including older Australians, stand to lose their right to complain to the Human Rights Commission 
about the lack of provision of captioning and audio description services at ANY of the 125 cinemas 
(1182 screens) owned by these four exhibitors.
?                  Jointly, these exhibitors have 1,182 screens across Australia. 
?                  They show approximately 30 movies per screen every week. 
?                  That’s a total of 41,370 screenings per week (1182 screens x 5 sessions per day x 7 days) 
?                  Of these, only 105 will be captioned and audio described. This is equal to less than 0.3% of 
all movies screened per week. 
?                  At this pace, it will take 1000 years to achieve universal access, that is, access to all 
screenings in all cinemas. 
As posed by Arts Access Victoria and The Other Film Festival - Is this fair?
Further, a  key element of the Rudd Government’s National Arts and Disability Strategy is to:
Explore opportunities to enhance accessibility and inclusive practices in the film, television and 
broadcast industry. This may include programs in Auslan and efforts to increase captioning and 
audio-description services, particularly for government funded films, and promoting international 
best practice models which support casting artists with a disability.  
(Focus area 4. Strategic development, 9. Film, television and broadcast industry)  
www.cmc.gov.au/publications/nationalartsanddisabilitystrategy
The cinema exhibitors’ proposed exemption does not seem to be in the spirit of the 
goals of our National Strategy?
Regards - Estelle Fyffe 
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