UPDATE ON THE CINEMA ACCESS IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

22 June 2011

MEDIA RELEASE

22 June 2011

For cinema-buffs who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or vision impaired, access is coming to a cinema near you!

Arts Access Victoria is pleased to announce the latest news on the Cinema Access Implementation Plan and the exciting progress that is underway as outlined in the Communiqué from the Accessible Cinema Advisory Group (ACAG) here.

The Cinema Access Implementation Plan has been put forward by Australia’s four major cinema groups (Hoyts; Village; Event/Greater Union/Birch Carroll & Coyle; and Reading) with funding support from the Australian Government.

The implementation of the accessible cinema plan will see Australia take a leading role internationally in the delivery of new technologies for the provision of captioning and audio-description. By December 2011, 50 cinema screens will be offering Captiview, leading to a grand total of 242 by 2014.

We invite patrons to test out the cinemas using the new technology and provide feedback to accessible.cinema@fahcsia.gov.au

The current list of cinemas with the new technology can be found at http://www.yourlocalcinema.com.au/

For further updates on the Cinema Access Implementation Plan, please check the Arts Access Victoria website at
http://artsaccess.com.au/cinema-access