Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) that audio description (AD) is a flexible and unobtrusive way of making the visual content of television accessible to people who are blind or have low vision,

(ii) that modelling untaken by Vision Australia shows that there are approximately 350 000 people in Australia who are blind or have low vision, with this number estimated to increase to 564 000 by 2030,

(iii) that under Article 30(b) of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Australia has ratified, the Government has an obligation to ensure that people with disabilities have access to television programs,

(iv) that Part 9D of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 includes requirements for the provision of captions on television programs in order to make them accessible to people who are deaf or hearing impaired,

(v) that, despite a successful trial of AD conducted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 2012, the ABC does not provide AD on any of its free to air television services,

(vi) That the ABC is currently conducting a government funded 15 month trial of AD on its ABC iview catch up service, but that many people who are blind or have low vision experience significant barriers to accessing ABC iview, and

(vii) That the Special Broadcasting Service, Foxtel, and the commercial free to air television networks provide no AD in Australia;

(b) expresses concern that Australians who are blind or have low vision are disadvantaged because Australia lags behind many other countries, including the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Spain and New Zealand, which all provide varying levels of AD on television programs; and

(c) calls on the Government to amend the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 to include requirements for the provision of AD on free to air and subscription television programs by the ABC and all other networks, similar to captioning requirements.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement.

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian government is working hard to break down the barriers that people with disabilities may face in the community, including those issues that restrict and inhibit access to electronic media and communications. The government has provided funding to the ABC to undertake technical trials, of audio description, to inform its consideration on this important issue.

The ABC is currently conducting an audio-description trial on its online catch-up television service, iview. The trial commenced in April and 14 hours of audio described content is available per week. In 2012 the ABC conducted a 13-week terrestrial trial, on ABC1, of audio-description commentary. The results found that while there were significant benefits for those with vision impairment the addition of an audio-description service meant technical problems for a significant number of ABC1 viewers. Following the completion of the online iview trial, in 2016, the government will receive a report from the ABC on the outcome of the trial.

Question agreed to.