I am excited and proud to say I have just joined as a member for the first time in my life. I’ve followed the club my whole life. Unfortunately, I’ve never had full access to Essendon’s media as a deaf person; every video is not captioned and transcripts are never provided for podcasts, even though captioning and transcription take minimal effort.
I’ve contacted the club about this matter, and, ironically, it fell on deaf ears. I tried again, and it took a while to get a reply. I was given the impression that they can’t be bothered, so I decided to not bother anymore.
It hurts to say this because there are in fact AFL clubs committed to making their media channel accessible for the deaf and hard of hearing supporters. There are hundreds of deaf and hard of hearing people in Melbourne who go for the Bombers and plenty of them are members. We are also a diversity group with our own language (Auslan – it is an acronym for Australian Sign language, and the official name).
Also, it is just not deaf people who don’t have full access to media; there are numerous different people who don’t have full access to media - people with autism, vision impairment, dyslexia, brain injury, etc.
So, is this something you will look at in your role in the media and diversity sector, and especially if you are elected?
For a start - welcome on board! Glad to have you as a member.
Secondly, I apologise profusely that your request was not responded to, or actioned. I’m actually incredibly embarrassed by this.
I recently went through an entire accessibility audit on the website i ran for my day job, and I know how important accessibility is - and I most certainly do not want the club receiving any more fines!
May I ask a couple of questions?
Is the website disability accessible?
Is the Essendon app?
I will most definitely work with the media team to ensure all our content has captions or subtitles in the future - I am actually shocked that they do not already. I’d love your feedback on the website and app as these are both Telstra properties and I would like to follow up any accessibility problems directly with the team at Telstra, elected or not (I still have a few friends in there from my old job).
I am truly sorry that this seemingly has not been addressed before.
I will reciprocate your brutal honesty by saying that I - and from what I have read over the years, most of BB - could not care less about your opinion.
Look at the post again. I was neither rude nor patronising.
Indeed, anyone can use BB to “sell their message”. But having access here does not mean that the rest of us should unquestioningly pump up their tyres.
I am so pleased you raised this. When I watched the TV coverage of the Logan floods In Queensland some years ago I was impressed that the Bligh Government had an Auslan interpreter on line, which we did not then have in the Southern States for emergencies.
Perhaps, in addition to the EFC sorting it out, the EFC could pressure the AFL to do something , in respect of all aspects of diversity.
Interviews with Conor have subtitled in the past, so it’s clearly doable, but it does take time. It’s trade off we all should accep though, post match videos going up 30 mins later so all can enjoy.
I am afraid I can’t really answer your first question because I don’t know what is required to make the website accessible for everyone.
I use the app regularly to read the articles and watch highlights, and I have no issues with it apart from the lack of closed captioning and transcription.
I do remember being told that both are Telstra properties, and that was one of the reasons they didn’t believe that they could provide CC and transcription because they would need Telsra’s permission first or something like that.
Sorry I can’t be more of help with your questions. And, again, I really appreciate your reply!
But … The AFL owns the club websites. What is its leverage witht Telstra .? All it has to do is s say publicly that Telstra won’t allow it and all hell would break loose. The likes of John Faine would take this up.
The main issue is that the channels don’t want the interpreter in the screen because they believe it may throw viewers off, and especially if the interpreter isn’t “attractive”.
I’ve no idea how the partnership between the AFL and Telstra work - the AFL Live Pass was affected by the TV rights to the Foxtel as it was apparently the reason that the AFL/Telstra wouldn’t show AFL games on full screen on tablets.
That is a question I am trying to have answered. I can’t see any closed caption options on the player at all, but not sure whether that is just due to not having any captions available.
The media department are looking into this. Hopefully we can see some movement in the next few months.
Perhaps we could create a community of people that transcribe podcasts too…
Yep, I follow San Antonio Spurs of the NBA and Liverpool FC. I’ve just had a look at the EPL and the major American leagues’ websites as well as their teams’ websites: all of them have CC on their videos. The NFL website also provide transcripts for some videos, and you can even download the videos’ audio.
You need to be a digital member to access the EPL clubs’ videos on their websites but they use YouTube and the videos have CC too, although they are automatic generated, and they are never 100% accurate.
Essendon’s Youtube channel, BomberTV, doesn’t even use automatic generated captions but they don’t use YouTube much, though.
Some, not all, of the videos on the NBA app have CC.
There is no CC on the AFL website, ditto their YouTube channel.
Australia is miles behind when it comes to accessibility.
Its the case for much of the internet media they can provide.
industries need to look at what the new owners of F1 are tying to implement in the coming years after getting out of and seeing through bernies ■■■■ policies.