Australia’s disability discrimination commissioner has criticised the ABC for its decision to stop transcribing some of its news and current affairs programs.
Alastair McEwin warned the decision would affect thousands of people with disability, and would prevent the ABC from being accessible to all Australians.
He told Guardian Australia the decision was bad from a human rights perspective, and ran contrary to the web content accessibility guidelines that require all media, including audio and video, to be accessible through transcripts.
He said the ABC had not contacted him before the decision but he would take it up with the broadcaster.
The ABC has come under fire since it was revealed two months ago that its management had changed the ABC’s transcription set-up, and would dramatically wind back transcriptions of key news and current affairs programs.
Programs affected include AM, The World Today, PM, 7.30, Lateline, and Insiders.
The head of ABC’s current affairs, Bruce Belsham, explained to staff at the time that the decision reflected changing audience needs.
“As audience needs have changed with the shift to mobile consumption, and towards key ABC digital properties such as abc.net.au/news and apps, the need for this focus on transcripts has reduced, and the need for digital staff to create bespoke versions of stories and program items in text, video and audio formats is increasing,” Belsham said in a note to staff.
During Senate estimates this week, Michael Millett, ABC’s director of corporate affairs, said the ABC would save $210,000 a year from the changes.
The Labor senator Kim Carr asked Millett if he felt the changes were worth it, given the deterioration in the quality of its transcriptions since the decision.
Carr said a transcript of an Insiders interview with the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, on 9 October was “grossly inaccurate”.
“It does concern me that for such a small amount of money such an important service upon which many people rely – and certainly in this building but I put it to you across the country, given the significance of the ABC’s news gathering service – that we could end up in a situation like this,” said Carr.
McEwin has now told Guardian Australia the significant reduction in ABC transcripts would severely affect people with disability.
“People who are deaf or hard of hearing … the vast majority of them rely on the written transcripts to be able to follow what’s being said in audio formats, such as radio chat shows,” he said.
“And people who are blind, whilst they can hear the radio, many of them also like to download the transcript and read it at their own pace through their own software, such as screen reader software.”
He said Michelle Guthrie, the head of the ABC, had said she would like the ABC to be accessible to all Australians by 2020, but these cuts were a “backward step.”
An ABC spokesman told Guardian Australia, in response to McEwin’s criticism, that the ABC still provided more transcription services in this area than any other broadcaster.
“The ABC’s transcription services have undergone change as a result of both budget cuts and the recognition of ABC audiences’ growing reliance on catch-up services,” a spokesman said.
“As more content has become available online or as podcasts, the ABC determined that there was less demand for its transcription services.
“The ABC still offers transcriptions services, including the key political interview on programs such as AM, The World Today, PM, Correspondent’s Report and Insiders, and full transcripts for 730 and Lateline.”
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