Cinema Access – Submissions to the Australian Human Rights Commission
17 February 2010
Below are excerpts from submissions made to the Human Rights Commission on Cinema Access, December 2009.
…
I write to ask that cinemas be required to provide access for Deaf people to latest release movies. I would love to see movies when they come out rather than having to wait for DVD (and then cross my fingers because often it doesn’t have subtitles then and I’ll NEVER be able to see it). I can’t go out with my partner to see movies – my partner has to take someone else. This doesn’t happen in other countries such as the UK or USA.
Thanks,
Asphyxia
…
Ballarat Deaf Social Club Inc. has been trying for many years to have captioned cinema in Ballarat Regent Theatre but to no avail. We did have once on show at the Regent Theatre as part of the Hearing Awareness Week and it was a real eye opener. It was absolutely worthwhile to be able to watch the captioned movie without having to rely on other people for explanation on story of the movie. It was such a great feeling to be among the people of all races to enjoy the show as a normal pattern of life.
Now we are back to square one due to the Regent Theatre’s refusal to purchase the equipment that can show the captioned words on the screen due to the very high cost. They felt that they would not make a profit. So the government should be able to assist with the running.
Really this is an act of discrimination against deaf/hard of hearing/hearing impaired people regardless of their race, religion, status and whatever they may be in. This is very hurtful. Lifts, ramps, and easy access can be seen in the theatres but what about helping deaf people to enjoy watching the captioned movie just like other people who can watch and listen at the same time.
Just think of how the very first black and white silent movie came to the world and how people love it then the sound track system and the colour of movie came on as the technology improved but sadly nothing yet for deaf people in the very modern world in the 21st century for Ballarat!!
Just think of all the wonderful technology in the modern world that can make life easier and enjoyable for people… how about giving the deaf a fair go. We have eyes to help us to see, read, lipread and share the social life but this is not the case in Ballarat. The Jam Factory in Melbourne caters for a number of years and Ballarat is still not getting anywhere even though Ballarat is expanding all the time with the growing population. I’m very patient but 2 ½ years is a long way to come for the new digital technology to arrive.
…
I currently live in Perth, Western Australia. I am deaf and I attend Hoyts in Cannington to access movies with subtitles, that are only available for three sessions a week.
However, I have recently been informed about the exemption under DDA Section 55, It is very wrong to do that, as the percentage of access comes down to only 0.3%
I have watched films at Hoyts many times and quite often I have felt a lot of disappointment such as subtitles aren’t working, delayed time, wrong movies etc.
I am aware that if the subtitles are not working I am refunded my ticket cost, however what about the time I have set aside to watch the film, and the travel time I have wasted? As there is only 1 captioned movie provider in the Perth area there are many Deaf people who travel far out of their way to watch those films, this also is unacceptable.
For example, one time the caption machine broke down during the movie, and It was sent for repairs. They informed us it will take about 2 weeks, but it was 2 months! Very disappointing!!
Also, I would rather if there is one theatre room at the big company like Hoyts to have lots of different movies in one week with subtitles and audio to choose from.
There is lack of people attending Hoyts in Cannington because of the LACK OF SUBTITLES, lack of options for the film, and the captioning not working.
Also sometimes we have to wait a lot longer to watch blockbuster films, this isn’t fair, sometimes they don’t even release the film in subtitles at all, or very few are subtitled.
I would also like to mention the fact that if more subtitled films were on offer, more people would be likely to come and watch those films. We are the only people who have no choice as to what movie we want to watch and when!
Please respect deaf/hard of hearing as they are in needs for their enjoyments to watch those popular movies.
I am looking forward to hear from you in the near future.
Kind Regards
Damon Barrett
…
My daughter who is now eleven and profoundly deaf has never been able to watch a movie suitably rated for her age group during the school holidays in Melbourne. She is subjected to all forms of media advertising and continually asks when she can see a film with her friends. What do I tell her? My enquiries direct to the cinemas have always blamed distributors. It would appear that the whole programming is purely based on a Sydney centric model, so if our school holidays don’t line up with Sydney my daughter cannot see what her peer group has access to. Our School holidays do not align with Sydney.
In our family’s personal experience when a film of suitable rating and appeal eventually appears on the screen and our daughter wants to see it with a friend, they have invariably seen it and so the experience and pleasure is not to be had.
What do I tell my daughter if exemptions are continually granted to cinema organisations and distributors?
Sorry but apparently if you are a big enough company you can discriminate.
Yes the advertising is like someone a bully teasing you sweetheart, but you know sometimes big business get there own way if they don’t want to do something.
Well sweetheart it’s like this, although there is supposed to be equal access and opportunity if big cinema organisations and distributors get together and complain they are given a piece of paper called an exemption which says they don’t have to provide equal access and opportunity for deaf children. I know there are special lifts and ramps and seats for people with physical disability, but you’re different you’re deaf and you’ll just have put up with being excluded from our culture.
Regards,
Joanne Beckwith
…
My name is Ashleigh and I am 20 years old. I have a severe hearing loss since birth. Although I am one of the lucky ones, who speaks very well orally and can understand people around me talking. Although I struggle to understand people talking in movies, especially when there is background music during the scenes. But I especially feel for my deaf friends in which half of them sign and do not talk because that is the only way they are able to communicate, either because hearing aids or a cochlear do not work for them or they were bought up to sign.
We all love going to the movies at the Jam Factory, Prahan, Victoria. We always see a subtitle movie. Makes our money and time together more enjoyable since we could actually understand the movie. But this is the only place in Victoria or possibly Australia that screens subtitled movies. It takes me 1 hr and a half to get to the city, that is just ridiculous when I live 5 minutes from Knox City, that have a beautiful village cinema complex. Why cant they have subtitled movies there and all other village cinemas. I can tell you not just deaf and hard of hearing people require subtitles, elderly people would appreciate the extra luxury and many other hearing people too.
Ashleigh Bransden
…
As a parent of a teenage Deaf son and the hearing daughter of Deaf parents, I oppose the exemption sought by the Cinema Industry regarding captioning for the next 2.5 years.
Language acquisition is a key developmental factor for young Deaf and hearing impaired children.
Subtitles/captioning provide excellent opportunities for language development. In my parents generation there were no subtitles/captioning on any movies (except for foreign films). My son has grown up with subtitles/ captioning and his language acquisition is akin to his hearing peers. My 77 year old mother is now glued to the TV watching every and any program with subtitles/ captioning, as she was starved of knowledge and the story line all her life. Something hearing people take for granted because, before subtitles/captioning, the TV was a box of moving mouths. I remember as a young child when TV first was invented I asked my Deaf father, “Who is that man talking on the TV?” My father had to reply, “I don’t know”. There was no visual clue on the advertising that there was a voice over accompanying the advertisement.
Regards,
Marion Burrows
…
I am hearing, and my life partner and wife is a Deaf woman who needs captions to participate in cinema.
As a hearing person I am able to check the newspapers or the web and am presented with a broad range of movie options in convenient locations and at times that fit our busy life. If, however, I want to share that experience with my wife or our whole family I am limited to very few theatres, inconvenient locations that usually involve expensive travel or parking costs, and a choice of one movie instead of 20 or more. The vast majority of contemporary cinema titles NEVER make it to captioned showing. In the past twelve months we have been unable to enjoy any captioned movies as those highly restrictive set of criteria have not aligned. For those who don’t live in capital cities the situation is dramatically worse.
We are forced to choose foreign language films or wait until the movie is no longer “hot” and hits DVD. This not not equate to the real cinema experience and ironically Australian content is probably not to be captioned on DVD anyway.
It is important to recognise that for every one person who may directly need access to theatres, there are many family, friends, partners, and peers who are also impacted by this lack of equity.
Do the maths.
Len Bytheway
…
As a sibling of a person who is deaf, I strongly oppose to this recent application for certain cinemas to be exempted from the Disability Discrimination Act enabling cinemas to legally show films without captions at a rate even less than the current.
My brother is 20 years old and should have the right to enjoy the same harmless entertainment as everyone else. He loves watching movies but can rarely do so at a cinema because he doesn’t understand what’s going on. We live in Campbelltown, NSW and the closest cinema with captions is 1 hr drive away and only showing every 2nd Thursday night at 7:30pm, and only one movie is shown with captioning at this time. I find this absolutely despicable.
My brother and the rest of the deaf and hearing impaired community have been in a world of silence for too long, they should not be facing further restrictions but instead greater accessibility to life.
Carol Chan
…
I am married with three children. I have been blind since teenage years and still remember when I could see movies when they were in black and white, not in colour like today.
Going out as a family to the movies is a great leisure activity. But I can’t share in their excitement in watching the movie to the same extent as my remaining sighted members of my family.
Although there are some live theartres which provide audio description services, these are few and out of my price range, as well as not of great interest to the rest of my family.
By the time I am able to obtain an audio description movie on DVD, the movie is out of date and has lost its impact in terms of suspense and thrill of the new plot.
Please consider the introduction of audio description at live cinemas. There are so many activities that prevent blind people in participating with sighted people. This one doesn’t have to be one of them.
Ettore Cipollone
…
Since, I’m deaf and cinephile, my view on 105 screenings in Australia alone is awful lacking for provide to deaf and blind audience where in the suburban society are wrestling with their life schedule to find idealise time to visit a choice of film of their prefer and with possible of providing captions in the cinema. I’m university student and I hard to find appropriate time to possible to visit to cinema to see the film in either of three weekly screenings in a cinema. It is rather unfair deal for deaf and blind audience. Many of them are limit of experience the entertainments in the cinema as I find it a mammoth difference between with experience at the cinema with seeing captions on silver screen compare to the box at corner in the family room.
Avni Dauti
…
My name is Julie Deane and I am a person with a significant vision impairment (legally classified as blind). I regularly go to the cinemas to watch movies. Whilst I can see some of what is occuring on the screen, there are times when I can not see smaller movements of actors, text (eg. names of actors or English subtext used when another language is being used) or small obojects etc. I often miss out on the smaller details and plot intricacies within the movie. I frequently need to rely on people accompanying me to describe what is happening. This sometimes results in abuse from fellow movie goers who don’t understand the need for people to talk to me. Audio description would increase my enjoyment of movies and enhance my independence as I would not have to rely on other people to explanin what is happening.
Julie Deane
…
I am severely deaf, I can hear people face to face but rarely make out the words from actors on screen especially against the ever prevalent background noise of special effects and soundtracks. Growing up I missed out on a lot of dialogue in movies causing a degree of social separation from my peers. As a young adult I used to run a youth group for the deaf, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs for many years, long before captioned cinema came about and during that time it was painfully obvious to me compared to ‘hearing teenagers, the deaf were quite a lot more isolated socially. Such isolation potentially leads to mental health problems. “Going to the Movies” has been then as is now a major social component in young peoples lives. Hence the issue has far greater connotations and consequences than merely providing “entertainment” to the masses and “minorities”.
John Eagle
…
I look forward to the day where I can just ring up my hearing partner or friends to say, “Let’s go and see a movie at the local cinema…” without having to plan week(s) ahead and on the actual day to see if it’s still accessible for me, and whether I can get there in time from work! What a treat – one that is taken for granted by many, but still a dream for many deaf/hearing-impaired, and vision-impaired people, who just wish to be part of everyday culture and life! Please help make this a reality for all Australians who happen to need a little help with access. Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Alice Ewing.
…
As parents of two adult children, one of whom is profoundly deaf, we have seen our daughter get upset and frustrated at the lack of progress in access to mainstream social and cultural activities such as cinema, DVDs, and television all her life. Indeed, when our children were younger, this lack of accessibility very much limited what films we could all go and see together as a family. These issues have not improved markedly in recent, supposedly more enlightened times.
Lee and Hamish Ewing
…
I am partially deaf and unable to follow television and cinema without the assistance of subtitles. At present I do not bother to attend cinema at all simply due to the complete lack of any subtitled movies being shown in any location convenient for me at convenient times. (I live near Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne, where Hoyts offer a ridiculous number of screens, none of which offer subtitled movies. I note that the proposed increases in screens does not include Hoyts Chadstone.).
Audrey Falconer
…
There are so many times I have always wanted to take my hearing kids to the cinema but couldn’t share my experiences with them or communicate with them as there is no subtitles it to understand the movies story. I would love to have the subtitles shown at any day and times and any movies and any places so that I can have the choices and even Deaf people to have more choices to choose. To have the subtitles on movies I would be more freedom and more happy to go anytime with my kids to the movies and communicate with them about it. It’s very important to Deaf people.
Fiona Goldab
…
As a deaf patron of cinemas, I find that I cannot do without captions, so if captioning is cut back, that will take away one of the very few pleasures left for me that the hearing population take for granted. Imagine the ruckus it will cause if the cinemas decided that they no longer could afford to include sound with the picture. How would the hearing group feel???
Rev John Hoopmann
Deaf Pastor to the Deaf Community
…
My 13 year old son is hearing impaired and declined to involve himself in a recent social outing with his peers – going to see ‘New Moon’ at the movies. He said, despite reading the book, it would just be too hard for him to follow the conversation/dialogue. The audio loop is not enough for him despite 2 cochlear implants and above average language levels. He needs captions and it breaks my heart that he can’t fully participate in important social get togethers with his hearing peers. We need many more captioned movies at many more cinemas. The current cinemas and limited session availability are incredibly restrictive. Please. All who love foreign films know open captions do not detract from the pleasure of the film. It harms nobody and benefits many.
Yours sincerely
Jackie Dowling
…
My wife and I eagerly took our seats after double-checking again with ticket office staff that the movie was to be shown with the advertised captions.
The upcoming releases came and went – without captions! [That's OK - I reassured myself - you can't expect too much! As long as the main movie has captions, she'll be right..........]
But then the main movie started and nothing!
After waiting until we were about 5 to 10 minutes into the movie it was obvious that the promised captions were not going to make an appearance. My wife and I then made a decision to leave the cinema and make a complaint to the front desk ticket staff, with the hope of obtaining refunds (at a minimum).
Once we had made our way out, we could see that there was already another deaf individual there communicating with cinema staff. After some discussions with the various staff members, we were finally advised that it was all a “mistake” and that they would “restart” the movie with the advertised captions!
We gingerly made our way back into the “packed” Friday night cinema and resumed our seats down the front.
The lights were now on and it was obvious to “all and sundry” that we were the “ingrates” who had stopped everyone from enjoying their Friday night flicks!
Michael Lockrey
…
We have lost count of how many times we wanted to watch a movie on a lovely Saturday afternoon, or a rainy Tuesday night, but stopped ourselves – “that’s right, there’s no captioned movies on”. We have often had to resort to watching hired DVDs (don’t get us started on captioned DVDs). Often, at work, we feel ashamed that we could not watch the latest blockbuster movies. All of our work colleagues talk about the new movies they’ve been to, while we feel very left out because we simply cannot watch them – we either have to wait for a few weeks before a captioned version is released, and we may not even be able to go to one of the three sessions. Otherwise, we wait a few months for the DVD version.
Brent and Melinda Phillips
…
This is my third discrimination letter ever I has wrote, and yet, I’m 14 and I feel that it is not good enough.
Robbie
…
I am a Deaf regular goer at Jam Factory in South Yarra (Victoria) and I’d be very disappointed if they cannot do anything to fix up the problem with the caption screening as where or what would I do for my Sundays? Its funny as today’s session (Sunday 6th December 2009) to watch “2012″ they had some problem with screening the open caption half way during the movie. I had to go out and grab the people who works there to realise there is a problem happening which they were not aware of. As the result were to give each person free ticket for the next movie we want to watch. However if we do approve the exemption, we would not be able to complain about it??? Just sitting there and watching the rest of the movie without subtitles? I think its ridiculous we Deaf people are made to miss out to enjoy the movie same as hearing people??
Kathy Sakellarios
…
I am a 50 year old woman; I lost my sight totally 7 years ago. Much has changed for me and my family. Being blind is an extremely isolating condition with many obstacles and tests. I would truly love to enjoy a “so called normal experience of joining my husband and children and friends at the movies. I feel as if Audio Description was awarded us and now is bang significantly downgraded as we appear to be undervalued by this government.
Isn’t it long enough for the blind citizens of Australia to wait!!! To enjoy the advantages that overseas blind citizens enjoy as their basic right. Obviously their home countries value their entire population and actively seek to include all! Please look at this again, CAREFULLY AS YOU COULD GREATLY ENHANCE OUR QUALITY OF LIFE bringing joy to many.
Yours Sincerely
Vicki Scheeren
…
I am legally blind and find that without audio description I very often cannot follow the actions of films. If I have a friend sitting next to me describing to me some of actions it can be annoying for other patrons and can be embarrassing for all concerned.
I believe for films with subtitles – an audio version of the subtitles should be available for people with a print handicap.
Yours faithfully
Kaye Speed
…
We are a family of 5 and three of us are deaf and I would like to see more Captions in the movie I am already frusterated by the timing and shows it is limited to – I would like to see more films accessed not only at the Jam factory which we recently went to as a whole family – The distance to travel is a bit far for us as we are from Melton and the traffic through the city and Toorak road is unbearable on Fridays. Outing through the week doesn’t seem ideal. Sunday 3pm – terrible timing when you have to prepare for work and school the next day.
I would like to see a film closer to home in Melton with captions and enjoy quality family time.
Helen, Dominic, Zara, Jarl and Enzo Ziccone
____________________________________________
