My name is Michael Lockrey and I’m profoundly Deaf.
I’m one of more than 3 million Australians who have a hearing loss and this is expected to grow to more than 5 million Australians by 2020.
As a result of my hearing loss, I rely on captioning to receive a brand, product or service message that is communicated using audio visual means, whether it’s the traditional commercials shown on television or those now increasingly shown over the internet or using social media engagement channels.
Like most people, I get very upset when I am missing out on information or when I think I am being ignored or treated differently.
With new Broadcasting Services legislation in place that will ensure that 100% of television programs broadcast on the main free-to-air channels will be captioned in the very near future, I expect to experience these negative feelings far more regularly, as only a small minority of television commercials are shown with captioning at present.
Some recent personal examples In my personal experience as a consumer who is Deaf, I’ve found that I will actually take my business to brands, products and services that support inclusion and accessibility.
Advertisers and their clients need to understand and comprehend that there's diversity out there and that people with a hearing loss are consumers who make purchasing decisions too.
To see the B&T investigation into closed captioning click here.
Example 1: The Nationals
Their political party advertising shown on television in Northern NSW recently hasn’t had any captioning.
This is very ironic as one of the largest groups of people with acquired hearing loss in Australia is farmers and agricultural workers, as they are exposed to high levels of noise pollution and ear damage from using heavy machinery and equipment.
Example 2: “I give a Gonski” education campaign
This was captioned on free-to-air television but the version which was placed on YouTube was not.
It would have been a simple exercise to also upload the captions onto YouTube, but for whatever reason, this didn’t happen.
Very hard to stomach when the campaign is about inclusion and participation for students in our educational facilities! It’s also difficult for me to “give a Gonski” when the “captions are Goneski”!
Example 3: McDonalds Australia
I've recently stopped going to McDonalds for a regular coffee as I always had to ask them to turn on the captions on their big screen televisions when I was there as a paying customer.
I then discovered that my local Coffee Club outlet have a policy of making sure that captions are always on their televisions and I never have to ask (or is it beg?)
So I promptly made the switch and I rarely go back to McDonalds now.
To be fair to McDonalds Australia they are one advertising client that tends to caption their television commercials, but it’s these sort of inconsistencies in accessibility (i.e. caption television commercial’s but not their brand, product or service websites / YouTube channels / physical locations, etc) that I find extremely annoying.
Current Regulations and Requirements
The Media Access Review Report recommendations from the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy were published in December 2010, and on the issue of captioning television advertising supported a self-regulation model.
As a consumer I’m comfortable with such an approach as Governments increasingly need to prioritise and shouldn't be expected to regulate everything.
I also strongly believe that it’s simply common sense in advertising to ensure that you're message is "heard" (no pun intended).
The few personal examples I’ve listed above illustrate that if you’re an advertiser who is not captioning your television, internet or social media campaigns at present, then you are ignoring more than 20% of the population right from the outset and with traditional television audiences being fragmented more and more, this is very, very hard to understand.
Worse still, you are potentially alienating these potential consumers.
In fact, I would be very surprised if there weren't a lot of "angry" advertising clients out there, once they understand that their big advertising budgets and campaigns are missing more than 20% of the population before they even get off the ground.
Captioning - as an education issue
In many respects, I believe captioning represents an educational issue for the advertising industry.
As a whole they don’t seem to understand just how important it is for the 20% - plus of the population who have a hearing loss, who use and rely on captioning regularly and how much it hurts when it’s missing or not made available.
For example, one very common misconception out there is that if you wear hearing aids or if you have a cochlear implant, then you don’t need the captioning. I can tell you now that this is rarely true and from my personal experience of speaking with many friends and colleagues who wear assistive devices, the one common denominator amongst us is that we all still use and rely heavily on captioning.
So in conclusion, if I had one final word to share with the advertising community, it would be as follows:
“Captions. Where the bloody hell are you?” (tongue firmly in cheek)