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Minister quizzed on Audio Descriptors for blind & vision-impaired

Minister asked why networks get a license rebate when a trial for audio descriptions ends after funding stops.

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The government is awaiting a report from the ABC on an Audio Description Trial before it will decide if permanent measures are required for Blind and Vision-Impaired people.

The ABC was funded by the Federal Government to conduct a 15 month trial of audio description on iview, which ran from April 2015 to July 2016. A final report from the ABC is due in September.

Last night on Q&A, blind man Wayne asked Minister for Communications Mitch Fifield why commercial networks were given a $25m license rebate, but no requirement that networks provide audio descriptions.

“I’m very keen to look to see what we can do in terms of audio description. It’s important that people if they are blind or vision impaired to have access to media. So Wayne thank you for the prompt,” Minister Fifield said.

“It’s something that I know people, during the trial, throughly enjoyed, having that access that they haven’t previously had.

“But we’ve got to look at the final report when it comes through. There will be some technical issues, I know. I can’t make any promises here tonight, but I’m not unsympathetic to where Wayne’s coming from.”

On Q&A the Minister was also asked about the Four Corners report on abuse the Don Dale Detention Centre following recent claims of bias from NT Chief Minister Adam Giles and former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett.

“Ultimately we’ll find that out during the Royal Commission,” he said.

“The facts will out.”

Asked whether ABC had presented a biased report, he said, “I assume the staff at Four Corners do their work diligently.”

Minister Fifield described the report as “deeply disturbing.”

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  1. The Minister was careful to not even come close to answering the question! Wayne very pointedly asked about why license fees were cut without so much as single trade off. In his case, its about audio description. In others, its about Australian content. Or just quality programming. But it will go inflating sports broadcast fees instead!
    Lets hope that if the ABC is lumped with doing the lion share of A/D, that located funding is forthcoming – although I agree with Sydney2218, that due to legislation in the UK, accessible tv programs are the norm. ABC’s BBC deal still contains many titles with this feature built-in, so to speak.

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