Accessible Arts / arts + disability NSW

The Board of Accessible Arts, the peak arts and disability organization across NSW, applauds the March 16 decision of the Australian Human Rights Commission that will see Hoyts, Greater Union, Village and Reading cinemas required to meet their legislative obligation to provide access for Australians with hearing and vision impairment.

The cinema exhibitors had sought a temporary exemption under section 55 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (the Act) in relation to providing captions and audio descriptions.  Currently a mere 105 out of 41,370 screenings per week have the captioning and audio description that makes movies accessible for this part of our community.

Maryanne Ireland, Chair of Accessible Arts, spoke for the Board in commending the Commission’s decision.  ‘This decision sends a very strong message that complying with the Act is not an optional extra for companies,’ said Ms Ireland.  ‘We hope that, in turn, this sends a broader message that access is a human right all the time, not just when it’s convenient.’

In making the decision not to allow the exemption the Commission looked at the applicant's reasons for seeking an exemption as well as considering submissions by interested parties.  Temporary exemptions have been granted in the past based on the commitment of applicants to take progressive action to meet the objects of the Act.  In this case however the Commission did not consider, on balance, that the application to represent sufficient progress could be considered reasonable.

‘The best case scenario coming from this finding,’ concluded Ms Ireland, ‘is that four million Australians who are deaf, hard of hearing, legally blind or vision impaired need no longer be excluded from the simple social pleasure of going to the movies.’

MEDIA CONTACT: Tracylee Arestides, Marketing & Media Coordinator Tel: 02 9251 6499 ext 101 M: 0425 208 521 E: marketing@aarts.net.au

Accessible Arts Applauds Human Rights Cinema Decision (Word, 96KB)