ACCAN represents consumer interests on the Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) Closed-Caption Committee, which has provided advice on developing a standard for quality closed captions on Australian television.
ACCAN applauds the Australian Government for its recognition of the importance closed captions play in providing meaningful access to television for many Australian consumers.
In the following submission, ACCAN outlines a number of ways in which the ACMA could improve the draft standard to ensure it provides the necessary safeguards for consumers, certainty for industry and appropriate guidelines to allow it to monitor and enforce caption quality.
Summary:
ACCAN's recommendations are:
- That the document requires pre-prepared block captions on all non-live broadcast programming.
- That the document include the minimum benchmark for live closed captions must be current best practice or higher.
- That the document allow live scrolling captions only on genuinely live broadcast programs.
- That the document include reference to best-practice measurable closed-caption metrics.
ACCAN is concerned that the published documents for this public consultation have not been provided in Auslan, the preferred and first language of Deaf Australians. Deaf Australians rely on closed captions to access television and as such this consultation is of profound importance to their social inclusion and participation.
Submitted to: Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
Status: Submitted
Download: ACCAN submission to ACMA draft standard on closed-caption quality [Word 2007 Document - 795.38 KB]
Download: ACCAN submission to ACMA draft standard on closed-caption quality [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 517.48 KB]