The What

We the undersigned respectfully request:
That the House of Representatives legislate to ensure accesssibility via closed captioning for Deaf, Hard of Hearing and other New Zealanders who need it, to access all broadcast, online and video mediums.

The Why

Video is everywhere these days and accessible on many devices – or is it? For many of us who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing we need video captioning – words on the screen so we can read what you say. Without it, watching TV becomes a lip reading challenge – which might seem funny for a minute, but not for a lifetime!

As the Chairperson of the New Zealand Captioning Working Group, I am asking for your help to make a real difference to the lives of hundreds of thousands of Deaf & Hard of Hearing New Zealanders.

We need you to please walk beside us and support us by first, signing this petition to show your support for mandatory broadcast captioning to give us access, then, most importantly, share it via your social networks.

So what is captioning? Captions are a little bit like subtitles that you see on a foreign film, but they are in the same language as spoken audio. They also include text for sound effects like “door slamming” or song lyrics, or simply say “silence” when there is no sound at all. Captions show us what other viewers can hear. Without them, TV is series of moving pictures and guesswork.

We’d like captions to be the responsibility of broadcasters. People that need them can turn them on using a button on their remote control or by choosing an option on their phone, tablet or computer.

In New Zealand we’ve fallen way behind our neighbour, Australia. Their TV stations are required to broadcast with captioning. The United States has had captioning legislation for decades. United Kingdom, Canada and much of Europe also require broadcasters to caption. But in New Zealand
only one news programme has captioning (One News)

• No news is captioned on any channel between 11pm and 12 noon the following day
• Some main channels cannot support live captioning and some free to air channels have no captioning whatsoever (Prime TV)
• No New Zealand On Demand or TV catch up service offers captioning (including TVNZ On Demand, 3Now, Sky Go, Lightbox)
• Netflix offers 100 percent captioning

Sadly, some excellent examples of great New Zealand content are available in America with closed captioning and not here e.g. Brokenwood Mysteries.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing New Zealanders need to be able to watch what they want, when they want and how they want – just like everyone else. They want to be part of the conversation about the latest news, reality show, political announcement or Rugby result. Captions are not a luxury, they are essential. Captions give us the full story so we can participate too.

Our campaign is not political - building an accessible, inclusive society is essential for all New Zealanders. Please join with me and the Captioning Working Group to help us get thousands of people to sign this petition so we can create a change. We can’t do it without you and very much appreciate your help. Thank you for signing and sharing.

Louise Carroll QSO, JP, GDPPA, MPA
Chairperson
New Zealand Captioning Working Group

The New Zealand Captioning Working Group is a collaboration of Deaf Aotearoa, The National Foundation for the Deaf and the Hearing Association New Zealand.