From: Emily Higgins Sent: Monday, 7 December 2009 2:28 PM To: disabdis Subject: I oppose the exemption from the Disability Discrimination Act In relation to the following below: The Cinema Industry has applied for an exemption from the Disability Discrimination Act in relation to captioning for the next two and a half years. This means that if accepted, deaf and hard of hearing people will lose their right to complain about the lack of captioning at any of the 125 cinemas owned by Village, Hoyts, Reading and Greater Union Cinemas for the next 2.5 years. If accepted, captioning will be offered at 35 cinemas just 3 times a week (which translates to one movie a week, mostly off peak - just 0.3% of the estimated 40,000 films screened by these four major cinemas each week). My son is profoundly deaf and although too young go to a cinema alone at present, there will be one day that he will need captioning to see a film. It is my right as a parent of a young deaf child, to advocate on his behalf. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like further information. Emily Higgins Thank you.