From:	Donna O'Mara 
Sent:	Friday, 4 December 2009 12:29 AM
To:	disabdis
Subject:	Applicaion for Exemption from DDA for Village Roadshow, Greater Union, 
Hoyts and Reading Cinemas for 2.5 yrs

Hi

I have 3 children and two of them are deaf (ages 15 & 7).  I am concerned about screening captioned 
movies and audio loops in theatres.

At home they have captions on for every show that has captions (including Play School).  Currently we 
would have to travel to Melbourne for them to access any captioned movies.

Yes we go to the movies and if they are wearing both their hearing aids they tell me they can hear but 
even with hearing aids they miss out on things that are whispered and sometimes when they can’t see 
the faces of the actors speaking.  The younger one sometimes can only wear one hearing aid or none 
at all and then she has little or no access to what is being said. 

I am guessing that if they were successful in gaining this exemption that they wouldn’t have to ensure 
there were audio loops in theatres and they wouldn’t have to ensure the ones already installed 
worked.  Generally staff in theatres either have no knowledge about the existence of audio loops or 
they cannot tell you which theatres have them and where they are (which seats).

It would be great if captions and working audio loops were the norm not the exception.

Please don’t let these major companies get this exemption. 

Donna O’Mara