Two more captioned cinemas

[via Media Access - http://www.mediaaccess.org.au/latest_news/cinema/two-new-sydney-cinemas-commence-captioned-movies]

Hoyts has announced that Warringah and Mount Druitt cinemas will be equipped with CaptiView captioning system. This in addition to the five cinemas that became CaptiView enabled on 1 December 2011.

Brazil Film Festival 2011

The film festival is on from 14 to 21 November 2011 this year.
Locations are Palace Norton Street and Chauvel cinema Paddington.

http://www.brazilfilmfestival.com.au/

15th Japanese Film Festival

Don't know about you but I don't understand Japanese. So, all Japanese movies in Australia are subtitled, don't need to rely on captions so much because they're already there!! Soundtrack music is another kettle of fish...

Anyway
The 15th Japanese Film Festival is on from 17 - 27 November in Sydney [and Melbourne 29 November to 6 December 2011]
website - http://15th.japanesefilmfestival.net/
location: Event Cinemas George St, in Sydney [map]

Why bother with captions?

There is a wealth of movies available from the so-called talkies era. The fundamentals of movie production were established well before Al Jolson came along. Names such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Fritz Lang are true pioneers of the entertainment we now take virtually for granted.

The festival is on in Sydney in September, gone for this year but still available in other cities. Keep it in mind for 2012!

http://www.ozsilentfilmfestival.com.au/


^. .^

More captioned cinemas

More cinemas are coming on board. There's a little list available on the VicDeaf website

Check it out!


^. .^

Two videos

Here's a couple of videos which you may enjoy.
The first a cochlear switch-on movie





And a quick one for a candidate for the Republican nominee, re-dubbed. I think it shows what deaf people experience every day. What do you think?

Italian Film Festival, Sydney

It's on again at Verona and Chauvel Paddington, and Palace Norton Street.

15 September to 5 October 2011

http://www.italianfilmfestival.com.au for details

Why wait for captions on English language movies? What about the wealth from other cultures, subtitles already included!

75th Anniversary of Better Hearing Australia. Sydney Branch

The 75th Anniversary lunch was held at the Burwood RSL on the 22nd of July 2011.
Here's some pictures of the happy attendees.

More Captions at Hoyts

… and audio description.
Starting August 4 2011 these cinemas will be providing captioned sessions at these cinemas. Check the Your Local Cinema website for session times

Chatswood Westfield, Sydney – 1 screen
Chatswood Mandarin, Sydney – 2 screens
Warrawong on the NSW south coast – 1 screen
Belconnen, ACT - 2 screens
Woden, ACT – 2 screens


^. .^

Review of access to telecommunications by people with disability, older Australians and people experiencing illness

The Australian Government is undertaking a review of the services available to help people in need of assistance to access and make the most of the telecommunication choices available to them, including the National Relay Service (NRS).

Here's a link, you can make a submission by 19 August 2011
[link]

Captions on iView for iPad

For some time we've had captions available on TV broadcasts, via digital TV. Then ABC released its iView service for programming over the web. It took some time but captions were eventually added to those broadcasts as well.

Then Apple released the iPad, a tablet device that one can use to browse the web, check email, play games, just about anything you can do on a standard computer, with some limitations.

The ABC released the ABC app, which opened the doors for iPhone and iPad users. It was pretty good, but there were no captions.

Now, captions are available for the iPad version of iView and here's a few observations. Mostly they relate to the quality of the captioning rather than the iView app.

- The captions are a little small for my (JC) liking. It would be good if we could alter the size of the captions. This might not be possible if they are 'burnt-in' to the video file.
- Captions appear in a little grey panel, with white type. I think a darker background might be better.
- Like the captions on TV there is often a synchronization problem - the words a spoken but it might take a little while for the words to appear.
- There are often missed passages. This will occur if the captioned can't keep up with what's being said.

All in all I think the iView app is fantastic. I do hope that the ABC will include it in further developments to accommodate the hearing-impaired community. The developers are to be applauded and encouraged.
Media outlets generally need to improve the quality (and frequency, say to 100%) of the captions. The ABC is showing the way to Internet broadcasting.

Accessible Seinfeld

Since you went deaf have you missed being able to watch Seinfeld? Yes it's on the secondary digital TV channels, but without captions.

Now you can get Jerry Seinfeld's wisdom via a new website
http://accessibleseinfeld.com/


And Android users can download an app dedicated to the website as well
here

Like it? Hate it? Leave a comment! They will be passed to the developer for improvement and/or encouragement.

Have a look!

Arlene Romoff

Arlene Romoff is a hearing-impaired woman who has written about her experiences of deafness and cochlear implants. She is president and co-founder of the Hearing Loss Association of New Jersey in the United States.

She has a blog
http://www.arleneromoff.com/

Have a look!

More Accessible Cinemas

From the Accessible Cinema website

-

Event cinemas have announced that they are upgrading three cinemas to digital facilities, making them more accessible. The new facility should be available from 7 July 2011.

The cinemas will be CaptiView enabled and are located at
Parramatta, Maroochydore and George St, Sydney.

Session times will be available on the Accessible Cinema website
session times

Accessible Cinema Advisory Group (ACAG) announcement

The Accessible Cinema Advisory Group (ACAG) met for the third time on 25 May 2011.

During the meeting, the cinema industry confirmed the roll-out of an additional 45 accessible cinema screens (closed captions using CaptivView and/or audio description) by the end of 2011. This will bring the total to 50 screens. Whilst this is less than the 73 screens expected for 2011 in the Cinema Access Implementation Plan (the Plan), ACAG have been assured that delivery of the final 2014 target of 242 accessible cinemas against the Plan is on track. The type of accessibility on offer at each cinema will be advised. For information on when new accessible cinema screens become available, please check Your Local Cinema website at www.yourlocalcinema.com.au.

For your information, you can view ACAG’s second Communiqué at http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/disability/progserv/govtint/Pages/CommuniqueACAGJune2011_attch_A.aspx. The Communiqué identifies the key achievements from the meeting.


^. .^

Inquiry into Hearing Health in Australia

The report has now been released and is available on the Senate website

The report is available in PDF format and is broken into 8 chapters and 2 appendices.

Belvoir Street Theatre in Surry Hills, Sydney, is the latest venue to provide GoTheatrical!™ theatre captioning service

A captioned performance of ‘The Business’ is scheduled for Wednesday, 18 May at 8pm.

More info in their newsletter

Go Theatrical - http://www.theatrecaptioning.com.au/

New Captioned Cinema at Top Ryde

A new cinema has come on to the captiView system.
Events cinema at Top Ryde, located within the new Top Ryde City shopping centre, is the first of the Events chain to adopt the technology.

Media Access article

Events website

When in Melbourne

Hoyts Forest Hill is the latest to offer the CaptiView service

Hoyts Forest Hill website
Media Access Accessible Cinema site

Keep up the good work!!

Public Transport

Buses to Concord BHA

• 439 goes along Gipps St [next street north of BHA Concord office], between the City and Mortlake, via Leichhardt
• 461 goes along Parramatta Road, between The Domain, City and Burwood
• MetroBus M41 travels from Marsfield to Hurstville, cross-country and meets up with various other transport links

Timetables and Maps available at

http://www.sydneybuses.info/routes

View Larger Map

Do you have a easy transport link to your local BHA class? Post a comment or email!

Need help voting

The Electoral Commission has set up a web page in which is contained links for those who need help when voting.

There's also a system called iVote and you need to meet certain criteria, vision or other physical impairment, and various others, and you'll need to register beforehand.

Have a look, use your vote!

http://www.votensw.info/early_voting/ivote

Handy hints

I was writing this for a client and thought it might be worth wide-casting...

-

How to Subscribe #2

Further to my post "How to Subscribe"


Here are the little icons to look out for in your browser[s]

Safari
Firefox Windows
Firefox Macintosh
Internet Explorer [pull down from the pop-down menu for RSS feed selection]

You can also use this address - copy and paste into your browser or RSS reader, save the bookmark
feed://bhasyd.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

CaptiView at Hoyts Broadway

I went to Hoyts to escape the heat and to see "True Grit" a Coen brothers movie.
There is a system in use there called CaptiView which allows you to see personal subtitles. The device is mounted temporarily in the drink holder in your armrest. During this introductory time they have a technician bring you the device when you take your seat. The screen is on a flexible arm and you position it so you can see the screen and the captions at the same time.
It works very well.

I can recommend this new system most highly. What we need is more session availability and more movies. I understand that this is underway.

Anyone else used it?
Let us know what you think - leave a comment!


^. .^

CICADA dates for 2011, Sydney

Morning Teas are held every first Thursday of the month at SCIC Gladesville
[map]

Social Functions are scheduled for
February 13, April 3, June 5, August 14 and October 30
and feature a BBQ, guest speakers and socialising with other implants and their families.

13 February - "How to harness today's technology to improve your hearing"
Get the most from your iPad/iPhone/iPod with Michael Harrison, teacher of the deaf
and Monica Bray [SCIC] give the low-down on AudioBooks


Join!
http://www.cicada.org.au/

Tinnitus is the result of the brain trying, but failing, to repair itself

An interesting article...

ScienceDaily (Jan. 15, 2011) — "Tinnitus appears to be produced by an unfortunate confluence of structural and functional changes in the brain, say neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC)."

Tinnitus is the result of the brain trying, but failing, to repair itself

QLD flood funds raising

By now you'll know there's a disaster underway, way up north.

Here's some links

You may wish to donate some money.

Queensland Govt fund - phone, internet banking, send a cheque or various banks [list on the page]

Lifeline

 

Givit - Donate goods via this site - Brisbane and SE QLD only so far

 

Latest QLD government info website

Personal captions at Broadway Hoyts

Hoyts Broadway has made its personal captions system (CaptiView) available. Each patron leaves a deposit but gets their own individual caption screen.
There is an article on the Media Access website outlining the procedures and reviews the experience.

have a look!


Link to Media Access article


..

Location:Broadway shopping centre broadway NSW AU

Sydney Festival, January 8 - 30 2011

It's on!
This is our city in summer

Program guide [pdf]
http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/uploads/file/SF2011_Brochure.pdf

YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/sydneyfestival

Access page
http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2011/Plan-Your-Festival/Access/

Start the New Year

Here's a couple of links to get the ball rolling

Lurnea's Onita Thornton, 95, is oldest surviving deaf student
Liverpool Leader
http://ht.ly/3ANF3
If she can, you can

Driving with the top down could make you deaf
Auto123.com
http://ht.ly/3ANI1
Solution - when in the Maserati [or Porsche, or Ferrari], wear your fluffy ear muffs. Problem Solved!

Music poll

Hi there
Over at my other blog I've made a little poll about hearing impairment and music. Feel like spending 10 seconds and filling in the poll?

Your email address will be retained for no purpose other than to advise you of results, when there's enough.

Click here
http://ilsordo.blogspot.com/2011/01/loading.html

JC