The US DoJ has put a document into the Federal Register of July 26, 2010 that describes many aspects of the cinema industry conversion to digital from film, especially as it relates to the hearing and visual impaired audience(s). The title is:
Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Movie Captioning and Video Description
On page 13 of the attached PDF (transcribed in whole from the Federal Register, with a link to the original), there are a series of 26 questions that the Department of Justice are inviting comment on. The final date for comments is: January 24, 2011.
Just above the questions that the Department of Justice requests answers to, is the paragraph:
Finally, the Department is considering proposing that 50% of movie screens would offer captioning and video description 5 years after the effective date of the regulation. The Department originally requested guidance on any such figure in its 2008 NPRM. Individuals with disabilities, advocacy groups who represented individuals with disabilities, and eleven State Attorneys General advocated that the Department should require captioning and video description 100% of the time. Representatives from the movie industry did not want any regulation regarding captioning or video description. A representative of a non-profit organization recommended that the Department adopt a requirement that 50% of movies being exhibited be available with captioning and video description. The Department seeks further comment on this issue and is asking several questions regarding how such a requirement should be framed.
Finally, to temper the conversation, we submit the comment that Suzanne Robitaille of ablebodied.com made in her article on finding a captioned version of Avatar: "Ironic, as Avatar is about a man with a disability."
An RTF document of the questions are also attached. This author makes no claims on whether the two attachments have mistakes, but nothing was purposefully screwed with.
Related Items:
New Accessibility Law Passes | TV, Internet and ???
Presentation: Hearing and Vision Impaired Audiences and DCinema
Implementing Closed Caption and HI / VI in the evolving DCinema World
| File | Description | File size |
|---|---|---|
 DoJ Request for Comments; Movie Captioning and Video Description | Federal Register document: Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability | 156 Kb |
 Questions from DoJ Request for Comment; Movie Captioning, etc. | RTF document with Questions Only from DoJ/Federal Register Request | 28 Kb |
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