Guidelines of Accessibility Standards in the Public Exhibition of Feature Films in Cinema Theatres for Persons with Hearing and Visual Impairment

Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) has issued Guidelines of Accessibility Standards in the Public Exhibition of Feature Films in Cinema Theatres for Persons with Hearing and Visual Impairment. The objective of these guidelines is to provide an enabling framework to support the development of a culture and practice of accessibility of feature films for persons with hearing and visual impairment by adopting the following measures:

1. Defining the general principles for accessibility of feature films;
2. Identifying barriers to fully accessible feature films by determining relevant rules, requirements, standards and funding mechanisms to address such barriers;
3. Putting in place measures to ensure that persons with hearing and visual impairment have access, on an equal basis with others, to the public exhibition of feature films in cinema halls/movie theatres screened for commercial purposes;
4. Defining an institutional framework to ensure transparent oversight and impartial dispute resolution mechanism.
   Key features of Accessibility Standards include:
5. Ensuring Accessibility of films to Persons with Hearing and Visual Impairment
6. Applicable for feature films that are for public exhibition in cinema halls/movie theatres for commercial purposes.
7. Accessibility standards have not just been defined for film content, but also on assistive devices and theatre infrastructure, incorporating global best practices to prescribe the accessibility needed by persons with Hearing and Visual Impairment, to enjoy films in cinema theatres.
8. Mandatory Accessibility Features: at least one accessibility feature each for the hearing impaired and visually impaired, i.e. AD & CC/OC
9. “Audio Description” is the auditory narration of visual representations in a film for enhancing the film watching experience for visually impaired persons. During gaps in dialogue, it describes visual elements such as scenes, settings, actions and costumes.
10. “Closed captioning” is the means by which both the audio dialogue and sound representations of a film are made visible on demand by the user via on-screen text that is synchronized with the audio content.