ABC Director of Television Kim Dalton has welcomed the announcement today, by the Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan, that an investigation into access to electronic media for the hearing- impaired would be established.
‘ABC TV supports the terms of the investigation, which in effect would be a full stocktake of captioning and other access technologies that assist hearing- impaired Australians,’ Mr Dalton said today.
‘ABC TV has been a leader in the delivery of captioned broadcast content for 25 years and is committed to continuing to expand its captioning services for the deaf and hearing-impaired community.
‘In 2007, ABC TV will broadcast over 9,000 captioned hours of national and local content on ABC TV and ABC2, including news, current affairs, drama, children’s, documentary and educational programs.
‘In addition, we will broadcast over 700 hours of captioned children’s, pre-school and educational programming by the end of 2007.
‘ABC TV is party to the free-to-air broadcasters’ captioning commitment to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), which commits free-to-air broadcasters to increased levels of captioning, with a target of 70 percent of broadcasts (6am – midnight) by 31 December 2007.
‘ABC TV has already achieved that target, with captioning levels now over 70 percent,’ said Mr Dalton.
‘ABC TV has also extended the range of its captioning services to Parliamentary Question Time and the Anzac Day live coverage.’
‘In addition to delivering captions, ABC TV is working to take advantage of technological opportunities for increasing the range and amount of captioning material delivered to the community.’
[release from ABC TV]