Australia
G'day. This is our story.
We taught the internet it owed us access.
Access on this page: Signed: Auslan — pending How this page is tested
In 1999 a blind man asked the Sydney Olympics for a website he could read. They refused. On 24 August 2000 the Human Rights Commission ruled the Games had discriminated — the first ruling anywhere that a website must be accessible. In 2010 we brought the four big cinema chains to an agreement: 132 cinemas, 242 screens, captioned and audio described. In 2022 the UN found Australia in breach for leaving audio description off free-to-air television. The precedents are ours. The mandate still is not.
Auslan video — this story, in our language
A named Australian Deaf creator tells this page's story in Auslan. The video is the page, and the text is its transcript's cousin. This video existing is the reason this page is allowed to exist.
The UN agreed with us. The government did not.
So we build the delivery — ourselves.
What do you want to do?
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I want access
Watch.Understand.Belong.
TV, streaming, cinema, and services — in Auslan, captions, or audio description.
Go -
I create access
Create.Get paid.Be seen.
Deaf signers, interpreters, captioners, audio describers — your work, your name, your income.
Go -
I provide access
One API.Every screen.
Platforms, governments, cinemas, companies — deliver real access with one integration.
Go -
I back access
Host.Sponsor.Invest.
The builders who will deliver what the UN said was owed — be part of the firsts.
Go
More than one of these can be yours. The access is for you, and you can be paid to help make it.
Access in Australia today
We've been setting precedents for 25 years.
Maguire v SOCOG, 24 August 2000: $20,000 in damages and a precedent the whole web still cites. The Cinema Access Implementation Plan, 2010: the first national accessible-cinema rollout anywhere, negotiated with the Human Rights Commission. Henley v Australia, 2022: a seven-year campaign, and the UN told Australia to legislate audio description.
And we know the exhausting part: the government replied that it disagreed, and committed to no law. Every precedent is still enforced one complaint at a time.
We are done waiting for the mandate. The delivery comes next — made by us. That is what ally is: Deaf and blind creators, paid to make the access — Auslan, captions, and audio description as a first-class service — delivered to any screen.
In plain words
The law is on your side. What is missing is the service — and that is what gets built here, with the community.
Why captions alone are not enough → Why sign language
Talk to us
Tell us who you are
Write in your own language. We reply in it.
- Emailpartners@a11y.media
- Video messageSend a signed video — no writing needed
Contact us by form, email, or a signed video message — never voice-only.