From:	Paula 
Sent:	Monday, 7 December 2009 1:51 PM
To:	disabdis
Subject:	Captioning for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired

Dear Sir/Madam 
 
I am the mother of a twelve year old child, James, who has a mild-moderate hearing 
impairment.  James attends a Deaf Facility in a mainstream government school.
 
By choice, we do not have a working television (ie. with an aerial).  Instead, as a family and 
individually, we watch up to five DVDs each week.  These are borrowed from our local 
Council library (ie. are free), and have captions for the hearing impaired. 
 
When we all wish to go to the movies, on the other hand, there is just not this choice.  My 
husband and I and our other son are all hearing, but are well used to captions.  Indeed, we 
find captions useful when accents are difficult to understand or voices are muffled or spoken 
over.   
 
For our hearing impaired son, captions - particularly in a noisy environment, which cinemas 
often are - are critical. 
 
We are most concerned that it is possible that cinemas may be granted an exemption with 
respect to captions for the next two and a half years. 
 
We have yet to find a well-advertised and appropriate captioned film at a suitable time and 
place as we have been looking for a family film to attend.  The choice is simply inadequate. 
 
We ask that you take our views into account. 
 
Yours faithfully, 
Paula Dunn.