‘A blind viewer is suing the ABC over the national broadcaster’s failure to provide an audio description service to the vision impaired on free-to-air television.
‘Suzanne Hudson, 57, has launched a case in the Federal Circuit Court seeking a declaration that the ABC has unlawfully discriminated against her in failing to provide the audio description service, which allows the vision impaired to follow what is happening on television during scene changes and periods in which dialogue is absent.
‘Ms Hudson is asking the court to rule that the ABC must provide at least 14 hours each week of audio description, a service which can be switched on and off in the same manner as subtitles on programs on free-to-air television.
‘The Public Interest Advocacy Centre, which is representing Ms Hudson, insists Australia is lagging behind other developed nations in catering to its blind citizens. It says the issue affects more than 350,000 vision-impaired people.’