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• Television Captioning

The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 provides for the captioning of free-to-air television programs. In addition, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 makes disability discrimination unlawful and aims to promote equal opportunity and access for people with disabilities. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission may grant temporary exemptions from complaints made under the Disability Discrimination Act.

Broadcasting Services Act 1992

The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (BSA) requires each commercial television broadcasting licensee and each national broadcaster to provide a captioning service for television programs transmitted during prime viewing hours (6pm-10.30pm) and television news or current affairs programs transmitted outside prime viewing hours.

A number of types of programming are exempt from this requirement. These include:

• television programs that are not in English or mainly not in English;
• non-vocal music-only programs and incidental or background music;
• live sport coverage with unscheduled extended coverage that displaces a news program; and
• programs broadcast on a digital multi-channel during the simulcast period (unless previously broadcast with captions on the broadcaster’s core/simulcast channel).

Codes of practice developed by sections of the broadcasting industry in consultation with the broadcasting regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), also require broadcasters to clearly identify which programs have captions in their television guides and other consumer information.

ACMA handles complaints about captioning. It will consider whether a captioning service is provided in accordance with the BSA. ACMA may also consider whether a captioning service is provided in accordance with industry codes of practice provided that the complaint has first been directed in writing to the relevant broadcaster within 30 working days of the broadcast at issue. If the complaint is not answered within 30 working days of being received or to the complainant’s satisfaction, it may then be referred to ACMA. If ACMA finds that there has been a breach of a code, ACMA may direct the relevant broadcaster to comply with the code. Failure to comply with such a direction may result in a financial penalty .

Disability Discrimination Act 1992

The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) makes discrimination unlawful in relation to access to goods and services, except where providing non-discriminatory access would involve unjustifiable hardship. The DDA aims to promote equal opportunity and access for people with disabilities. Under the DDA, individuals can lodge complaints of discrimination and harassment with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC).

In 2003, HREOC granted a temporary exemption from complaint under the DDA to the free-to-air television broadcasters in return for the broadcasters agreeing to a number of captioning related initiatives, including gradual increases in captioning.

In 2004, HREOC granted subscription broadcasters a temporary exemption from complaint under the DDA, subject to various conditions including that each subscription broadcaster provide captioning on a gradually increasing number of channels.

• Document ID: 83421 |
• Last modified: 29 April 2008, 7:57pm