The provision of captioning (subtitling) on all Government advertising and public information videos is to be implemented by all NSW public sector agencies.

Memorandum to Ministers issued by then Premier Greiner in 1989, required that open captioning be part of the guidelines for the production of Government advertising and public information videos. However, the inclusion of such captioning has not been implemented by NSW agencies as widely as was intended.

Captioning can be either open (always visible) or closed (visible only when using a teletext/decoder on the viewing machine). The decision as to whether the captioning is more appropriately open or closed on any given advertisement or video should be made by the agency for which the video/advertisement is being produced.

The object is that all those people with any hearing disability should be able to receive the message of the video to the same extent as those not suffering that disability.

If you or your officers wish advice about procedures for captioning and the provision of that service, such advice can be obtained from the Government Advertising Agency within the Department of Public Works and Services and the NSW Film and Television Office within the Ministry for the Arts, whichever is appropriate.

(K.P. Baxter)
Director-General