Joint media release: Vision Australia and ACCAN
Blindness and low vision advocates are asking the Federal Government when audio-described content will be made permanently available on Australian television.
Audio description is used in visual media to describe what is happening on the screen. Available in the US, the UK, New Zealand, South Korea and parts of Europe, over 357,000 Australians who are blind or have low vision are missing out on the daily television experience enjoyed by their sighted peers.
Vision Australia Policy Advisor, Mr Bruce Maguire is just one of a number of people who submitted a question about this topic to the Minister for Communications, Senator Mitch Fifield, on ABC’s Q&A last night.
“Conveying ideas and news through visual and image-based media has never been more popular. It’s also an important way to stay informed about what’s happening in the world,” Mr Maguire, who is blind, said.
“Watching television is a big part of Australian culture and I’d like to get as much enjoyment out of the experience as everyone else does. Being able to watch a favourite program with my friends or family is something I miss out on.”
Audio-described content has never been available on Australian free-to-air television, except in 2012, when the ABC broadcast audio-described programs on ABC1 during a 13-week trial. The content was removed after the initial trial, prompting people from the blindness and low vision community to submit discrimination complaints to the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Mr Wayne Hawkins, a Policy Advisor with the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) explained that in response to these Human Rights complaints, the ABC began another trial of audio-described programming on the ABC’s catch-up service, iview, in April last year.
“The second audio description trial on the ABC has now ended and disappointingly, there has been no further action about implementing a permanent service. It’s not surprising people are growing frustrated over the difficulty in bringing attention to this issue,” Mr Hawkins observed.
“The broadcast industry says it's too expensive to provide audio-described television, yet in the May Budget, the Federal Government gave them a 25 per cent cut to their licence fees.”
“Is it really too much to expect that a portion of this $50 million saving could be reinvested in providing a highly sought after service to the blindness and low vision community?” Mr Hawkins asked in a video question posed to Senator Fifield in the final minutes of ABC’s Q&A.
Whilst not unsympathetic to the issue, responses made by the Minister for Communications during the Q&A program deferred to the review of the iview trial that is currently underway, and due consideration of the report that will follow.
“We’d hate to have come this far without any result again. Streaming selected programs through a catch-up service is not enough. The blindness and low vision community want audio described content on all free-to-air channels on Australian television,” Mr Maguire concluded.
Further information: About audio-description
A narration is delivered through a separate aural track during natural pauses in the dialogue and conveys content such as scene changes, facial expressions and critical plot details that have been performed in silence. The track does not interfere with the main program, so not all people watching the program at the same time need to listen to the audio-described content.