From: Irena Farinacci Sent: Monday, 30 November 2009 1:01 PM To: disabdis Subject: Submission in response to application for temporary exemption under DDA section 55 From: Irena Farinacci Sent: Monday 30th November 2009 To: disabdis@humanrights.gov.au Subject: Submission in response to application for temporary exemption under DDA section 55 To whom it may concern: I feel that the application made for a Temporary Exemption by Hoyts Corporation, Greater Union Organisation, Village Cinemas and Reading Cinemas is unfair and discriminatory. My friends and myself enjoy going to the movies often especially when many of us rely on captioning. If the exemption is granted, our simple and basic rights will be taken away from us. Deaf and Hard of Hearing people should be able to access services of all types without any level of discrimination. I have read that jointly these exhibitors have 1,182 screens across Australia. They show approximately 30 movies per screen every week. That's a total of 41,370 screenings per week (1182 screens x 5 sessions per day x 7 days). Out of these, only 105 will be captioned and audio described. This is equal to less than 0.3% of all movies screened per week. The exemption goes against the spirit of the Rudd Government's National Arts and Disability Strategy, the principles of access for all. My friends and I like to go to the movies and sincerely hope that this exemption will not be approved. Regards, Irena Farinacci Melbourne, Victoria