Success through captioning should be a given as a Right per the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities

Following a huge amount of work being done behind the scenes by the Captioning Working Group with membership from Deaf Aotearoa New Zealand; Hearing Association New Zealand and The National Foundation for the Deaf, and by some dedicated and caring people in our sectors, the announcement from the Access Media Charitable Trust, known as Able, that they will be captioning debates and live coverage on TV One during this year’s election was well received but came as no surprise.

After all, Article 29 – Participation in political and public life - of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities clearly states that political parties and candidates need to make their information regarding their political platform accessible and for our communities this means captioning.

When you consider the fact that some type of hearing loss is estimated to affect one in six New Zealanders (as per UK statistics), to constantly call for captioning when in fact it should be a right is a shameful state of affairs that needs urgent attention by whoever is elected into power in September.

In the meantime, please do watch the captioned election coverage and be amazed at how much more you will understand!

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