Executive Summary.

There are an estimated 250,000 Deaf or hearing impaired people in New Zealand (6% of the population). Of these around 80% have difficulty hearing the TV which affects their enjoyment of entertainment and their access to information. Even with hearing aids, 40% still have difficulties.

This report summarises the findings of a survey conducted among Deaf and hearing impaired people, their families and friends, with a view to providing evidence to the New Zealand Government to encourage legislation to make captioning of TV programmes mandatory by law. Such measures are in place in other countries leaving NZ well behind.

Some captioning is provided by TVNZ (funded by New Zealand on Air) but this amounts to less than 10% of all TV programmes across all channels. The Deaf and hearing impaired community in New Zealand is not satisfied with this level of provision and 86% of respondents favour a change in legislation to make captioning compulsory.

The survey results give some details about what should be the priority programmes and genre for captioning, although overall the tastes of the hearing impaired may be little different from the rest of the community. A commercial case is made for SkyTV to take some interest in captioning with evidence that more people would subscribe and would watch more if captioning on SkyTV were available. It is recognised however, that this may not be a strong commercial case and that legislation is still likely to be needed.

The strongest arguments in favour of captioning come from the analysis of open ended (unprompted) comments written in by survey respondents. In this analysis, captioning is clearly presented as an equity issue; i.e. equal access to TV for both hearing and non hearing people.

The verbatim comments shown in the report cover:

• human rights perspectives
• equality of opportunity – to access TV
• educational benefits
• principles of choice
• childrens’ needs
• comparisons with other countries.

By all these counts, there is a need for change.

The range of perspectives and the strength of feeling that is communicated in these comments speak for themselves.

Introduction.

This report presents the results of a survey conducted with the Deaf and hearing impaired community in NZ.

The initiative for the survey came from the sense of injustice and frustration felt by many in the Deaf and hearing impaired community of New Zealand. New Zealand is one of the few western nations not legislating for subtitles on TV, home video and cinema movies. As a result, many of the 250,000 Deaf (approximate) and hearing impaired New Zealanders are denied the simple pleasures of relaxation, entertainment and access to information that most of us enjoy.

NZ on Air currently receive $1.9 million from the government for captioning TV1, TV2 and TV3. From this funding, Deaf and hearing impaired people of New Zealand get 192 hours per week of television captioning.

Captioning is accessed via a Teletext compatible television. From the television remote control, captioning is available by selecting page 801 on Teletext. Not all televisions have the Teletext chip in them, so in many public places where there is television, such as hospitals, the Deaf and hearing impaired people do not have access.

Many countries have legislation in place, primarily in their Telecommunication Acts, in America both the Telecommunication Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are relevant.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 requires that businesses and public accommodations ensure that disabled individuals are not excluded from or denied services because of the absence of auxiliary aids. Captions are considered one type of auxiliary aid. Since the passage of the ADA, the use of captioning has expanded. Entertainment, educational, informational, and training materials are captioned for Deaf and hearing impaired audiences at the time they are produced and distributed.

Currently in New Zealand we only really have our Human Rights Act to refer to on this issue, which says that reasonable accommodation must be provided. There’s no definition or guidance on what is “reasonable” and there is nothing in our Telecommunications Act on accessibility and no legal or regulator provisions to progressively increase the amount of captions here.

There is also, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons, ratified by the New Zealand government, which states in article 30 that all persons with disabilities should enjoy access to television programmes, films, theatre and cultural activities inaccessible formats.

The authors estimate that the 192 hours of captioning represents less that 10% of all TV including Sky and free to air. Put another way, more than 90% of TV is unavailable to the Deaf and hearing impaired community.