§ Mr. BellinghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what requirements there are on cinemas to provide facilities for deaf people. [168898]
§ Estelle MorrisThe Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) requires service providers to ensure access to their goods and services. However, such things as the provision of subtitles are likely to fall under the remit of product or service design, which is not currently covered under the auspices of the DDA.
As part of its £500,000 National Lottery funded Cinema Access Programme, the UK Film Council's Distribution and Exhibition Fund has allocated £350,000 towards a pilot project for the installation of captioning and audio-description equipment in 78 cinemas across England.
A web-based film information service, www.yourlocalcinema.com http://www.yourlocalcinema.com/ has also received £50,000 over three years to inform those with sensory impairments about films being screened at local cinemas in England.
£60,000 has been allocated to assist distributors films with lower marketing budgets meet the cost of audio description and subtitling of prints.
Finally, £40,000 has been earmarked for a research project that will look into consumer issues relating to the current technical means of overcoming the barriers faced by customers with sensory impairments.