Accessible cinema news

Four cinema chains respond to access questions

An exemption application to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) was lodged by Greater Union, Hoyts, Reading and Village cinemas last year. This is to provide an additional 23 cinemas with both audio description and captioning capability. It also proposes retro-fitting the existing 12 cinema locations with audio description capability.

E-postcard campaign and community protests for cinema

8 February 2010

The newly formed Action on Cinema Access group has announced two ways that community members can be involved in the fight to increase the number of accessible cinemas in Australia.

Senator pushes for cinema access in Kentucky USA

Kentucky Democrat Senator Ray Jones has introduced a bill which would compel Kentucky cinemas to provide captioned access. According to Jones there are 640,000 Kentuckians with a hearing impairment and most cinemas do not offer a captioned service.

Change to captioned cinema schedule at major chains

1 February 2010

Media Access Australia has been notified by the exhibitors that the access discs for the film Up In the Air have not arrived in Australia.

Progress in Arizona movie access litigation

The Arizona Attorney General’s Department has sued the Harkins Theater Chain for not providing captions and audio description for its movies in contravention of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Although it is likely to be another 4-6 months until the legal process is played out, early indications are that the judges in the Federal Appeals Court are moving towards requiring access to the chain.