Cinema Access Update

23 November 2009

The Debate Continues…

Arts Access Victoria’s call to action in response to the cinemas’ application for Access exemption has inspired much debate and impassioned responses.

We have been overwhelmed by the huge number of responses to the application posted to the Human Rights Commission website. There have been 465 submissions which you can view HERE

The enormous response demonstrates how passionate people are about access to the cultural arts and how vital the arts experience is in people’s lives.

The debate and voices of dissent even made it to the hallowed pages of The Age newspaper. The Age article quotes AAV Executive Director Veronica Pardo who states that the exemption would mean that for 2½ years ”Australians who are deaf, hard of hearing, legally blind and vision impaired … 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 [the cinema] exhibitors”.

You can read the full article by clicking HERE

On Wednesday 16 December, Arts Access Victoria held a Community Meeting as an open forum on this issue. Fifty people attended who are all keen to continue the discussion. We’ll keep you posted on further developments.