From:	Hendy, Deanne D 
Sent:	Tuesday, 17 November 2009 2:37 PM
To:	disabdis
Subject:	Cinema complaints

I have been made aware of the recent application by the major cinema chains of Hoyts, Village, 
Greater Union and Reading to the Australian Human Rights Commission for an exemption from 
further cinema complaints re the rollout of various phases for captioned movies being introduced 
to cinemas.

Being a hearing person involved with the Deaf community for some time, I have found lack of 
deaf friendly facilities at the cinema extremely frustrating. 
Being from country Victoria our only access to captioned movies is in Melbourne and at time 
slots and on days/nights that are not suitable.  The movies on offer are not varied and the 
choices are very limited. 
To have this leisure activity denied myself and deaf friends as a form of entertainment is 
unacceptable, and further, to have the cinemas asking for an exemption from further complaints 
is totally incomprehensible.
I notice that Bendigo is not even on the list of cinemas to receive captions, which is 
disappointing, but if the Epping cinema  gets captions the trip to the movies will only be a 3 hour 
round trip, rather than a 4 hour trip!

Our deaf community is unable to attend and enjoy the cinema experience purely because they 
have an inability to hear.  
This means they are clearly discriminating against the deaf community through their lack of 
provision of accessible cinema captions. 


Deanne Hendy