From: Bindi Saxena Sent: Thursday, 3 December 2009 12:33 PM To: disabdis To Whom It May Concern, I am joining my voice among the below in dissent against the cinemas' attempt to be exempt from Disability Discrimination Act for any length of time. This is a backward step and against the spirit of fairness and equal access to all members of the society." An important issue has arisen recently, with four major cinema chains in Australia banding together to put in a submission for exemption from the Disability Discrimination Act for 2.5 years, while only providing minimal cinema captioning and audio description in this time, and beyond. If granted, this exemption will effectively render any complaints about accessibility void in this period. This is a serious backwards-step in the scheme of progress and improved access, although the collective cinema chains have decreed they will increase the number of cinemas with accessible technology in this 2.5 year period, they have made no show of commitment to actually improving accessibilty at all those cinemas beyond the minimum of *three* accessible screenings a week (these generally are of one feature film per week at the following times: Wednesday morning, Friday very early evening, and Sunday mid- afternoon - thus no real mainstream access). At present, not all feature films shown at the cinemas concerned are provided with open captions/audio description, and those that are, are only shown for one week. It makes it hard for those of us who like to see films with our hearing friends, sometimes the DVDs of these films come out before the captioned screenings themselves (or the friends have all already seen the film)! I would appreciate it if you could show your support as a concerned citizen in support of equal access and also advise the Human Rights Commission that this exemption should not be granted and that more should be done to improve access. At the current projected rate of improvement, it will take 1,000 years to gain full cinema access for deaf/hearing-impaired, and vision-impaired people! More information is attached below, in both English, and Auslan - an excellent summary from Arts Access Victoria, and links to the Human Rights Submission page are also given at the bottom of Arts Access' media release attached below. Only a brief email to disabdis@humanrights.gov.au by Monday 7 December 2009 showing your dissent and help in passing on this information to other concerned people is asked of you. This is particularly important to pass on to people who you know who are hearing-impaired, Deaf, or vision-impaired, and those who support their rights to better access. The deadline for submissions (emails) is Monday 7th December, so we need to spread word quickly to gain maximum awareness and response. With many thanks for your time and interest, Alice Ewing. AUSLAN VERSION: Please click on the blue link below for an Auslan version of the recent Media Release from Arts Access Victoria: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yGaQbqz3aQ Spread this email as widely as possible thanks. ENGLISH VERSION: Full View Arts Access Victoria MEDIA RELEASE ... A IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM VERONICA PARDO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Arts Access Victoria and The Other Film Festival are calling upon individuals and organisations to voice their objection to the recent application made by Village Roadshow, Greater Union, Hoyts and Reading Cinemas requesting exemption from the Disability Discrimination Act for a period of two and a half years. This means 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. If the exemption is granted, cinemas will provide captioning and audio description for a minimum of three (3) screenings in 35 cinemas around Australia. Let’s put that into perspective: ? 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. Arts Access Victoria and The Other Film Festival ask - Is this fair? 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 Is the cinema exhibitors’ proposed exemption in the spirit of the goals of our National Strategy? We don’t think so. If you don’t think this is right, you can voice your concern by sending an email or letter to disabdis@humanrights.gov.au by Monday 7 December 2009. For further information, you can visit the Human Rights Commission website at: www.humanrights.gov.au/disability_rights/exemptions/cinema/notice or you can contact ARTS ACCESS VICTORIA at: Voice 03 9699 8299 Fax 03 9699 8868 TTY 03 9699 7636 Email info@artsaccess.com.au ©2009 Arts Access Victoria | 24 Eastern Rd South Melbourne VIC 3205