Helping older Australians enjoy the movies
The Minister for Ageing, Mrs Justine Elliot, has announced the Australian Government will commit $350,000 in a one-off project – to ‘Helping Older Australians Enjoy the Movies: Accessible Cinema’.
It will improve smaller independent cinemas for some of the four million people with vision and hearing impairment, with special audio description (AD) equipment and captioning.
The Independent Cinemas Association of Australia, Media Access Australia, and the Department of Health and Ageing will work together to select 12 cinema locations nationally for the plan in rural, regional and suburban areas, to increase the number of Australian accessible cinemas to 22.
The plan is part of the Federal Government’s commitment to a greater focus on positive and active ageing – as part of its agenda to promote social inclusion and participation, as well as reducing social isolation.
The United States has more than 830 accessible cinemas, representing 15 per cent of locations; the United Kingdom has more than 250 accessible cinemas; New Zealand has three.
“This seed funding provides a one-off injection, but I am hopeful that cinemas all over the country will realise the commercial gains that are possible by catering for this demographic,” Mrs Elliot said.
It is hoped ‘Helping Older Australians Enjoy the Movies: Accessible Cinema’ will encourage the major commercial chains to further expand their AD and captioning programs.
The plan also complements a Film Finance Corporation announcement that from 1 July 2007 all Australian features funded by the FFC will be captioned.
This means more people will be able to see Australian films.
