World Hearing Day: New Zealand needs accessibility legislation for 'freedom and choice'

Wednesday, 2 March 2022

Able NZ's Alex Walker thrives on live captioning challenges as the Olympics draw to a close.

Gabriella Evans wishes captions were widely available when she was growing up.

“Watching cartoons, I would get the plot, but I didn’t know any of the characters’ names,” she said. She’d only learn of a character’s name when talking about it with friends.

Evans, who is hearing-impaired, got cochlear implants when she was 18 years old. It’s not “perfect technology” but it does give her more access. She also communicates with New Zealand Sign Language.

Gabriella Evans, 23, is hearing-impaired and a big fan of captions. She got cochlear implants when she was 18 years old.

March 3 is the World Health Organisation's World Hearing Day, a day to raise awareness about Deafness and hearing loss. Globally, one in five people are Deaf or hard-of-hearing. In Aotearoa, that number is one in six people, according to the National Foundation for the Deaf.

* Tokyo Olympics: Meet the Kiwis who make television accessible

* Supporting deaf people at work beyond Sign Language Week

“Captions are just part of my life,” said Evans, who lives in the Coromandel.

The 23-year-old said one of the benefits of being a regular caption-user is that she watches a lot of foreign films because she’s used to seeing them on the screen, rather than finding them an annoyance.

Captions give Evans, who is studying a Bachelor of Communication Studies, more “freedom and choice” when it comes to watching all types of media – from TV shows, to films and videos on her social media timelines.

Streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime have captions on all their content. But in New Zealand it’s very limited.

Wendy Youens is chief executive at Able.

“I would watch more New Zealand-based things, than just overseas things all the time,” said Evans.

She said more media companies should include captions in their content “because it would give Deaf and hard-of-hearing New Zealanders equal access to shows and products”.

A caption editor at work at Able, a not-for-profit organisation providing closed captioning and audio description services in New Zealand.

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Wendy Youens is chief executive at Able, a not-for-profit organisation providing closed captioning and audio description services in New Zealand.

New Zealand has no legislation that requires broadcasters or any kind of media platform to provide accessibility services, like captioning for the Deaf or hard-of-hearing or audio description for people who are blind or low-vision.

“We have NZ On Air funding to provide some captioning and audio description services but, because of a lack of legislation, there’s an inconsistency in services,” said Youens. “So there’s currently no mandate at all requiring anyone to make their content accessible.”

Not only is there a lack of funding, but a lack of technology capability. While some media companies have the technology to provide live captioning services, others do not which limits the choice of media content for some people who are Deaf and hard-of-hearing.

“When we compare New Zealand’s legislation situation with countries like Australia, UK, Canada and the US, they all have really strong captioning legislation,” said Youens. “Most of the time they require broadcasters to provide captions for 100 per cent or close to 100 per cent of their content. We just don’t have anything like that in New Zealand.”

Research shows that captions are not only beneficial for people who are Deaf and hard-of-hearing.

In 2006, OfCom’s UK study found that 80 per cent of the 7.5 million users of closed captions were using them for reasons other than being Deaf or hard-of-hearing.

Many people are also watching videos in a noisy environment, said Youens, such as on public transport or in a noisy office. She also said young people are four times more likely than older viewers to watch TV shows with subtitles because they are “multi-screening” and want to take in the content through variety of methods.

Youens said while there have been many great campaigns from disability activists to implement accessibility legislation, they have never resulted in much because there was a “reluctance” from Government to enforce it.

In an ideal world, businesses and media companies would value all users and make accessibility a priority, she said.

“The motivation and incentive is not always there; it’ll only happen with mandates.”