From:	Ant Lill 
Sent:	Friday, 27 November 2009 2:25 PM
To:	disabdis
Subject:	Cinema Captioning

Dear Sir/Madam,  
 
I have been informed that cinema captions are under threat and that the four major cinema chains 
in Australia are cooperating as a team to put in a submission for exemption from the Disability 
Discrimination Act for 2.5 years, while only providing minimal cinema captioning. This is of 
serious concern to me since the the right to complain about services will be taken away from 
many people not just the Deaf and Hard of hearing.  
 
The exemption reminds me of a similar exemption in regard to the captioning of television 
programs. In the period of exemption captioning did not noticeably improve and the period was 
extended. My concern is that this exemption submitted by the four major cinema chains will be a 
repeat performance. Can they be seriously be losing that much money from complaints that it is a 
serious economic threat to their enterprise. 
?	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)
?	Of these, only 105 will be captioned and/or audio described. This is equal to 
less than 0.3% of all movies screened per week.
If the exemption is granted, cinemas will provide captioning and audio description for a 
minimum of three (3) screenings in 35 cinemas around Australia.  
 
This doesnt make sense to me, there are no lawsuits costing the cinema companies millions of 
dollars that I am aware of in regard to cinema captioning - as a member of the Deaf Community I 
would be aware of things of this nature since this would be very important to us to keep 
informed of.  
 
My concern is that there will be no improvement to the accessibility and standard of captioned 
cinema and that as with the tv captioning it will be a repeat performance. Currently we have 
access to three sessions per week in Melbourne. These occur at approximately 6.30 on Friday 
night, 3.30 on Sunday afternoons and 10am in the morning on Wednesday and the titles are 
normally shown once a week.  Whilst this is certainly better than nothing it does present problems 
in terms of arranging a time to see movies with friends - especially with our friends who are 
hearing since hearing people have a significantly wider range of times and a given title will run 
for several weeks at the least. These captioned movies are shown at just one location in 
Melbourne.  Hearing people have access to  so many locations.  
 
I cant see what justification there is for the exemption submitted by the four main cinema 
companies considering our limited choices and I am concerned this will be a repeat of the 
exemption for television captions. Please consider my letter in regards to making your decision.  
 
Thank you.  
 
Ant Lill