Opinions and Letters
Page 19
Opinions
Welcome to the new opinion and letters pages. These pages will be a regular feature of Outlook from now on, following your responses to our reader survey.
We welcome letters and feedback on any of the articles or topics presented in the magazine. Please send your letters to the Editor, Outlook, Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind, Private Bag 99941, Newmarket, Auckland.
Accessing visual media
Film and television are visual media, at the centre of our cultural stream - whether we like what is depicted there or not. It's a bit like bread and circuses in Rome - decried as markers of the Roman Empire's decline, but nevertheless iconic symbols of where it was at.
Blind people have become increasingly mainstreamed over the last several hundred years but as mainstream culture comes to increasingly depend on visual images, rather than just the written word, those without access to the visual communication modalities, risk being re-marginalised.
Blind people need access to visual media. What can be done?
Film and television can be audio described. That is, they can have an additional narrated sound track, in which a voice over describes key visual elements that are not obvious from the dialogue and original sound track.
Such audio described films are available on video from Britain and the US, though cost and copyright barriers exist for New Zealanders who wish to access them.
More problematic is the fact that those overseas producers don't produce New Zealand material. They typically only produce audio described versions of very mainstream, Hollywood style films. They rarely produce art house or specialist films, and never produce third world or New Zealand film. So New Zealand blind people never see New Zealand film or television. The NZ blind community needs to rise up and demand audio description of local film and television. I challenge New Zealand to set itself the task of audio describing all New Zealand films - as they are made for new films and television, but also retrospectively for the rest. It's not such a huge task - it's not as though NZ turns out thousands of films per year!
NZ could become the first country in the world to have its entire film archive audio described.
Let's do it.
by Anthony Cooke
Anthony was RNZFB AFP (then Transcription) manager from 1991-1998. He has a degree in Classics from Otago and wrote his Masters on how blind students cope with visual language in schools.
Page 20
Letters
The Day before Tomorrow
Below is a poem by 81 year-old Douglas Keen, a member from Palmerston North.
Yesterday has come and gone
Today is with us now
Tomorrow is still yet to come
But in truth I vow
The day before tomorrow
Is with us here today
The day before tomorrow
Is when we work and play
When we love our neighbours
And fraternise with friends
The day before tomorrow
Is the day that never ends
The day before tomorrow
Will see some make mistakes
While others will be happy
To welcome lucky breaks
The day before tomorrow
Is with us constantly
Ever present through all time
And through Eternity
The day before tomorrow
Is a very special day
Very positive because
It never goes away.
Dear editor,
The problem of isolation of the blind touched on in the recent Outlook (Winter 2004) is something that has been on my mind lately. Why is it that I never encounter anyone else carrying a white stick at the local shops?
Where are the elderly [vision-impaired] I wonder? I think particularly of the elderly person living alone, their [family] perhaps overseas or living elsewhere ... To be the only blind person in the average rest home set up would, I imagine, be an isolating experience. Is there a case for living-in accommodation for the blind? I am not suggesting that the blind be segregated in institutions, but that communal living should be an option for the lonely. I should like to know what others think of this.
by Mary, Auckland
If you have something to say then please send your correspondence to us. Space is limited so publication will be at the discretion of the Editor. We look forward to hearing from you.